When AI Decides: Building Human Rights Accountability In, Not After Ainura Bekkoenova, United Nations Development Programme Online Meeting (MS Teams)<https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/391384320230949?p=ARDOhu5ZSPv5rh1OgD> AI systems now make or substantially shape consequential decisions across virtually every domain of human life — hiring, credit, policing, border control, content moderation, healthcare, justice. Yet traditional human rights frameworks remain reactive, responding only after harm occurs. Protecting rights in AI-mediated contexts demands a fundamental structural shift: from post-deployment remedy to pre-deployment, system-specific accountability. Drawing on the design and global deployment of the UNDP AI Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) Toolkit across various countries and regions, this talk unpacks how to embed human rights accountability directly into the design stage: which rights are implicated by which system architectures, how impact pathways can be traced from model behaviour to lived harm, and where the friction points lie between technical teams and human rights obligations. Finally, the session bridges these practical insights with the UN human rights standards and emerging regulations—including the EU AI Act and the Council of Europe Framework Convention on AI —exploring what "human rights by design" actually means for builders in contexts where technology rapidly outpaces oversight. Ainura Bekkoenova is a Policy Specialist in Rule of Law, Security, and Human Rights at the UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub, where she leads AI governance programming across Europe and Central Asia. Operating at the critical intersection of international human rights law, emerging algorithmic regulation, and on-the-ground deployment realities, she is the co-designer of the UNDP AI Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) Toolkit. Developed in collaboration with regional experts and piloted across Europe, Asia, and other regions (Africa, Latin America), this practitioner-facing instrument operationalizes rights accountability directly into AI system design and deployment, particularly in environments with fragile oversight capacity. A member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), Ainura works closely with governments, data protection authorities, and international partners to ensure that emerging technologies are developed and deployed in alignment with the UN human rights standards, democratic principles, and emerging global regulations. Subscribe to future talk announcements: Anyone outside Bell Labs can receive talk announcements by subscribing to the mailing list. To subscribe, send an empty email with the subject line "Subscribe RAI" to daniele.quercia@polito.it