Challenges and opportunities of using artificial intelligence in human rights education. Reflections from higher education practice

As artificial intelligence becomes embedded in educational environments, human rights education faces opportunities and challenges. This article argues that whether AI strengthens or undermines human rights education depends on how it is integrated into educational practice and whether its use is guided by the principles of participation, equality, and inclusion underpinning the right to education. Drawing on the United Nations’ tripartite framework of education about, through, and for human rights, the article examines how AI reshapes pedagogical relationships, learner agency, and educators’ roles in higher education. Using reflective inquiry, it combines policy and scholarly literature with reflections from the author’s experience teaching human rights education in a legal education programme in Estonia. The analysis suggests that, while AI raises important technological challenges, the more fundamental challenge for human rights education is pedagogical. Ultimately, human rights education should actively shape how AI is used in educational practice.