New tech­nolo­gies based on dig­i­tal­iza­tion, automa­tion, and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence have fun­da­men­tal­ly trans­formed our lives and soci­ety as a whole, in just a few decades. These tech­nolo­gies sup­port human well-being and pros­per­i­ty by enhanc­ing progress and inno­va­tion, how­ev­er, they also have the poten­tial to neg­a­tive­ly impact human rights, democ­ra­cy, and the rule of law. Dis­crim­i­na­tion, the vio­la­tion of pri­va­cy, increas­ing sur­veil­lance, the weak­en­ing of per­son­al auton­o­my, dis­in­for­ma­tion and elec­toral inter­fer­ence are but a few of the many con­cerns. This paper exam­ines the spe­cif­ic human rights impli­ca­tions of AI-dri­ven sys­tems through the lens of the most impor­tant inter­na­tion­al instru­ments adopt­ed by the UN and region­al human rights mech­a­nisms. The paper shows how AI can affect the exer­cise of all human rights, not only a most obvi­ous few. In line with major inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions, the author calls on deci­sion-mak­ers to take a pre­cau­tion­ary approach by adopt­ing AI reg­u­la­tions that are con­sis­tent with the stan­dards of fun­da­men­tal human rights, and that bal­ance the real­iza­tion of the oppor­tu­ni­ties with the poten­tial risks which AI presents.