{"id":17793,"date":"2026-07-16T15:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T15:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/17793\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T15:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T15:25:09","slug":"ukrainian-human-rights-lawyer-technology-must-defend-humans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/17793\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukrainian human rights lawyer: Technology must defend humans"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the sidelines of the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly in Castel Gandolfo that culminated in the signing of the \u201cRome Declaration for an Unarmed and Disarming Peace,\u201d Oleksandra Matviichuk, a Ukrainian human rights defender, speaks to Vatican News about the need to reform intergovernmental organizations and to place human beings before technology in order to promote peace and slow down the arms race.<\/p>\n

By Isabella H. de Carvalho<\/p>\n

As wars and conflicts continue to ravage states across the world, Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Center for Civil Liberties<\/a> \u2013 an organization that promotes human rights and democracy in Ukraine and that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 \u2013 emphasizes the need to reform intergovernmental organizations and to place human beings before technological progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are living in a very turbulent time where the world order based on the United Nations charter and international law has collapsed,\u201d she underlined.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the main questions of the current world is the following\u201d, she asked: \u201cHow will we, people who live in the 21st century, defend human beings, their lives, their freedom and their human dignity? Can we rely on the law or does just brutal force matter?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to evaluate the role of technologies in regards to how they answer these questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matviichuk, a lawyer and human rights defender, spoke to Vatican News on the sidelines of the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear War,<\/a> which took place at the Borgo Laudato Si\u2019 (\u201cLaudato Si\u2019 Village\u201d) in the papal gardens in Castel Gandolfo, about an hour away from Rome.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Nobel<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Nobel laureates, international experts and scientists, religious leaders, and former heads of state and government gather at Rome’s Capitoline Hill to sign the “Rome Declaration …\n <\/p>\n

The event lasted from July 14 to July 16 and brought together over 200 Nobel Prize winners, experts, academics who gathered for discussion sessions and then signed the \u201cRome Declaration for an Unarmed and Disarming Peace\u201d at the Capitoline Hill in Rome.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Matviichuk spoke during a session focusing on the topic \u201cTechnology in the Service of Humanity\u201d and the use of AI in Nuclear weapons systems. The Center for Civil Liberties in fact works on establishing human rights, democracy and solidarity in Ukraine and the OCSE region and has also focused on documenting war crimes since the beginning of Russia\u2019s full\u2011scale invasion in February 2022.<\/p>\n

We need to talk more about humanity and reform the UN <\/p>\n

For Matviichuk, in order to slow down how AI is being used in conflicts and the arms race that is currently affecting our world we must first rethink what it means to be human. \u201cWe spoke too much about technologies and too little about humanity,\u201d she underlined.<\/p>\n

In this regard she also defines as a \u201cvery important document\u201d Pope Leo XIV\u2019s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas<\/a>, on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence. \u201cI’m very glad that it appeared in this time when we have no legal answers, no ethical answers but humankind needs clarity,\u201d she said. \u201cI’m very grateful that His Holiness is keeping his attention on the role of AI and new technologies today and in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second step for Matviichuk in order to change how AI is being used in conflicts is to regulate technology before it\u2019s too late. \u201cSometimes I have the impression that we are losing this battle without having entered it,\u201d Matviichuk noted.<\/p>\n

She also emphasized that \u201ca cardinal reform of the UN system\u201d is necessary to promote peace across the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can’t protect people from mass violence, authoritarianism and wars. It’s visible not just for people in Ukraine, in Sudan, in Myanmar, in Nicaragua, Venezuela or Gaza. It’s become visible to all people regardless where they live,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Matviichuk said she was glad for the opportunity to gather with experts and intellectuals from different fields and countries to discuss these \u201curgent issues that will define our common future.\u201d She said she had \u201cmoderate expectations\u201d for the impact of the conference and the Rome Declaration they signed, noting that \u201ceverything will depend on the follow-up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the sidelines of the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly in Castel Gandolfo that culminated in the signing of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2475,7116,7117,2529,25,4490,26,314],"class_list":["post-17793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-international-organizations","tag-magnifica-humanitas","tag-peace","tag-russia","tag-science-and-technology","tag-ukraine","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}