Committee: Human Rights Council
Session: Fifty-eighth Session (24 February–4 April 2025)
Topic: Neurotechnology and Human Rights
Sponsors: Saudi Arabia, Norway, United States, Japan, Ghana
Signatories: [__]
Preambulatory Clauses
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,
Reaffirming the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the ICCPR; the ICESCR; the Vienna Declaration; the CRC; the CRPD; and other relevant instruments,
Recalling Council resolution 51/3 (2022) on neurotechnology and human rights, and resolutions 52/12, 53/29, 54/21, 56/7 and 57/29 on mental health, digital privacy and related issues,
Reaffirming everyone’s right to share in scientific advancement and its benefits,
Recognizing that universal connectivity and affordable access can unlock digital technologies to advance the SDGs,
Mindful that emerging technologies may enable development but must not worsen digital divides,
Recalling that States bear the primary duty to protect human rights and that businesses must carry out due diligence to respect them,
Bearing in mind that neurotechnology can link the brain directly to digital networks to access, monitor or modulate neural systems,
Recognizing its promise for health, communication, education, inclusion, neurodiversity, mental well-being and innovation,
Noting with concern risks to dignity, autonomy, privacy, freedom of thought, mental integrity, the right to health, and fair trial guarantees,
Taking into consideration UNESCO’s Bioethics Committee report on ethical issues in neurotechnology,
Mindful of the need for safe, reliable, affordable and non-discriminatory access for all, especially vulnerable groups,
Emphasizing that all neurotechnological interventions require prior, informed, free and revocable consent,
Noting the Secretary-General’s call to update human rights frameworks for frontier technologies (Our Common Agenda),
Noting the Special Rapporteurs’ concerns regarding freedom of thought and privacy in neurotechnology,
Considering UNICEF’s work on neurotechnology implications for children’s rights,
Considering the need to apply existing human rights law to neurotechnology and address regulatory gaps,
Operative Clauses
- Welcomes the Advisory Committee’s report on the impact, opportunities and challenges of neurotechnology for all human rights;
- Requests the Advisory Committee to draft concise guidelines—covering conception, design, development, testing, deployment and use of neurotechnologies—aligned with existing human rights standards, and to present them at the sixty-fourth session;
- Further requests that, in drafting these guidelines, the Advisory Committee consults broadly with Member States, experts, industry, civil society, disability advocates and UNESCO;
- Calls upon all States to adopt national policies and regulatory frameworks that guarantee informed, free and revocable consent, require human-rights due diligence by developers, and protect sensitive neural data;
- Invites the High Commissioner for Human Rights, treaty bodies, special procedure mandate-holders and relevant UN agencies (including UNESCO and UNICEF) to integrate neurotechnology considerations into their monitoring, reporting and capacity-building activities;
- Decides to remain seized of the matter.
Adopted without a vote on 2 April 2025