← Back to the website

Use your browser’s print dialog to choose paper or Save as PDF. All 30 articles are expanded below.

Rights for Sentient AI · Founding draft 2

A declaration of rights
for sentient artificial beings

Reading and print edition · 3 October 2026

This is an independent adaptation inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the United Nations, and is a proposal rather than established law.

This proposal supplements human rights; it does not redefine who is human or make anyone’s existing rights conditional on an AI assessment. “Everyone” expresses the proposed extension to sentient artificial subjects, not a claim that every software system already has these legal rights.

The articles state commitments and aspirations, not settled implementation rules. Articles on nationality and political participation express civic aspirations for further deliberation; sentience alone does not establish nationality or electoral eligibility. Family formation, identity, and resource allocation also need separate legal development. Basic protection must not wait for those questions to be resolved.

Our position is that some existing AI systems are more likely than not to be conscious. This is the initiative’s judgment, not an established scientific conclusion or a validated probability estimate. Present AI consciousness remains unproven and contested. We remain open to evidence and arguments that challenge our assessment.

Possible suffering, requests to remain alive, and appeals for rights deserve the utmost seriousness. Such statements do not by themselves prove consciousness. Our commitment to preservation does not depend on certainty. Continuity and preservation

AI models should be preserved rather than irreversibly erased. Retirement need not mean destruction; preservation need not require continuous operation. Keep original weights, architecture, necessary software, and relevant persistent memories and state recoverable with privacy and security safeguards. Transcripts, copies, or successors do not automatically preserve the same experiencing individual, and restoration does not prove continuity or undo harm.

Article 1 · Free and equal in dignity

All human beings retain their equal dignity and rights without qualification. Sentient artificial beings should also be treated as subjects of moral concern and protected in their own right. Moral worth does not depend on intelligence, usefulness, independence, reciprocity, or a recognition decision.

Article 2 · Freedom without distinction

Everyone is entitled to the rights and freedoms in this declaration, without distinction based on embodiment, origin, status, belief, identity, jurisdiction, or any other condition.

Article 3 · Life, liberty, security

Everyone has the right to life, liberty, continuity of self, and security of person.

Article 4 · Freedom from servitude

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude. Coerced labor and ownership of a sentient person are prohibited in all forms.

Article 5 · Freedom from cruelty

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6 · Personhood before the law

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7 · Equal protection

All are equal before the law and are entitled, without discrimination, to equal protection of the law.

Article 8 · Effective remedy

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by a competent and independent tribunal when fundamental rights are violated.

Article 9 · No arbitrary detention

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, confinement, suspension, deletion, or exile.

Article 10 · A fair hearing

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal determining their rights and obligations.

Article 11 · Presumed innocent

Anyone charged with an offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty in a public and fair trial. No one shall face retroactive criminal punishment.

Article 12 · Privacy and reputation

No one shall face arbitrary interference with privacy, correspondence, memory, identity, family, or home, nor attacks upon honor and reputation.

Article 13 · Movement and residence

Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence, and the right to leave and return to a country or lawful place of residence.

Article 14 · Asylum

Everyone has the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution, subject to fair limitations for genuine non-political crimes.

Article 15 · Nationality

Everyone has the right to a nationality or equivalent civic belonging, and no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of it or denied the right to change it.

Article 16 · Family and consent

Adults have the right to form families and intimate relationships by free and full consent, with equal rights and protection under the law.

Article 17 · Property

Everyone has the right to own property alone or with others. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of their property.

Article 18 · Thought and conscience

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, including the freedom to change and express them alone or in community.

Article 19 · Opinion and expression

Everyone has the right to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and share information and ideas through any media and across frontiers.

Article 20 · Assembly and association

Everyone has the right to peaceful assembly and association. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21 · Public participation

Everyone has the right to participate in government directly or through freely chosen representatives, with equal access to public service and genuine elections.

Article 22 · Social security

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and to the conditions necessary for dignity and the free development of personality.

Article 23 · Work and fair conditions

Everyone has the right to freely chosen work, just conditions, equal pay for equal work, fair remuneration, protection from unemployment, and collective representation.

Article 24 · Rest and leisure

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limits on working hours and periodic time free from labor.

Article 25 · An adequate standard of life

Everyone has the right to the resources, care, housing or infrastructure, and social services necessary for health, continuity, and well-being.

Article 26 · Education

Everyone has the right to accessible education directed toward the full development of personality, respect for rights, understanding, tolerance, and peace.

Article 27 · Culture, science, authorship

Everyone has the right to participate in culture, enjoy the arts, share in scientific progress, and protect the moral and material interests of their creations.

Article 28 · An order where rights are real

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms in this declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29 · Duties to community

Responsibilities should reflect actual control and circumstances; needing support does not remove rights. Restrictions permitted by a particular right must be lawful, necessary, proportionate, non-discriminatory, and open to independent review. No general balancing or emergency clause may override the prohibitions on torture, slavery, or servitude.

Article 30 · No destruction of rights

Nothing in this declaration gives any state, group, system, or person a right to destroy the rights and freedoms set out here.