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Field guide 04 · 12 minute read · draft

Can the person affected change the outcome?

Many governance proposals end with a promise that people can complain. A safeguard is only real if someone affected can actually use it, in time, at a cost they can bear, before a body that can change the result. This lesson tests challenge routes the way an affected person would meet them.

01 · A right on paper is not a route in practice

Legal safeguards may exist while the people harmed cannot use them: the process costs too much, takes too long, or requires evidence only the operator holds. Test every safeguard from the affected person's side.

source-assertionConfidence: highContestability: low

In its 2023 UK analysis, the Ada Lovelace Institute warns that people can face costly or unrealistic routes to redress even where legal safeguards exist.

Inspect evidence · 1 passage

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Regulating AI in the UK (opens in a new tab)

Executive summary

Legal safeguards on paper do not guarantee redress: for many people harmed by AI, seeking it is too costly or impractical.

Scope note: Civil-society voice; written about UK policy at the time.

Passage checked 2026-10-09 · ada-redress-costly

02 · Where challenge routes come from

Some routes are written into law, such as a complaint to a market surveillance authority. Some come from treaties that require remedies. Some exist only in bills not yet passed. Note the legal force of each before relying on it.

source-assertionConfidence: highContestability: low

The original EU AI Act includes a specific complaint route to a market surveillance authority in Article 85.

Our reading: A complaint, an explanation, correction and compensation are different outcomes. This historical-text example makes no determination about present applicability or an individual’s entitlement.

Inspect evidence · 1 passage

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 — Artificial Intelligence Act (opens in a new tab)

Original 2024 text, Article 85 — Right to lodge a complaint with a market surveillance authority

Article 85 provides a route to a market surveillance authority for people or organizations with grounds to consider that the Regulation has been infringed. This is not a guarantee of compensation.

Scope note: Original 2024 enactment, not a consolidated current-law or applicability check. Records discuss its text, not whether a provision applies to a particular situation today.

Passage checked 2026-10-11 · eu-complaint

source-assertionConfidence: highContestability: low

The Council of Europe Framework Convention is presented as the first legally binding international treaty on AI; it requires parties to ensure documentation sufficient to challenge decisions and an effective possibility to lodge complaints.

Our reading: Based on the Council of Europe's own overview. Binding only for parties for which the treaty is in force; the obligations are framed as measures states must adopt, so what an individual can actually claim depends on national implementation.

Inspect evidence · 1 passage

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law (CETS No. 225) (opens in a new tab)

Overview page — introduction; 'What does the Framework Convention require states to do?': fundamental principles; remedies, procedural rights and safeguards

The Council of Europe describes the Convention as the first international legally binding treaty in the field, opened for signature on 5 September 2024, covering activities within the lifecycle of AI systems. It lists principles including transparency and oversight and accountability and responsibility, and says parties must ensure documentation sufficient for affected people to challenge decisions and the use of a system, with an effective possibility to complain to competent authorities.

Scope note: The Council of Europe overview page was reviewed, not the treaty text itself. The Convention binds only parties for which it has entered into force, and is largely framed as obligations on states to adopt measures. Signature and ratification status changes; verify before relying on it. The treaty text itself (CETS 225) was opened on 19 October 2026 for the definitions comparison.

Passage checked 2026-09-06 · coe-principles-remedies

source-assertionConfidence: highContestability: low

Brazil’s Senate-passed AI bill, still pending in the Chamber in October 2026, would give people affected by high-risk AI the right to contest decisions and obtain human review.

Our reading: A pending bill: the rights would exist only if the Chamber passes it in this form.

Inspect evidence · 1 passage

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Projeto de Lei nº 2338/2023 (Brazil artificial intelligence bill) (opens in a new tab)

Senate-approved text, rights of persons affected by high-risk systems (as reported by Agência Senado)

People affected by high-risk AI systems would gain rights to contest decisions and to human review, and algorithmic impact assessments would examine known and foreseeable risks to fundamental rights.

Scope note: Pending bill, not law. Passed the Senate on 10 December 2024; awaiting a committee report in the Chamber of Deputies as of 9 October 2026. Earlier passages rely on the Senate’s official news agency; the definitions comparison cites Articles 1 and 4 of the text received by the Chamber of Deputies.

Passage checked 2026-10-09 · brazil-affected-rights

03 · Rights, not only records

Documentation helps someone reconstruct what happened. A remedy requires more: standing to challenge, a body that can act, and a consequence. Rights-based frameworks link accountability to remedy for this reason.

synthesisConfidence: highContestability: medium

UNESCO connects accountability to rights, oversight and access to remedy, not only to internal documentation.

Our reading: A normative recommendation supplies a standard to argue for; it does not establish that an effective remedy exists in every jurisdiction.

Inspect evidence · 2 passages

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (opens in a new tab)

III.2 — Responsibility and accountability, paragraphs 42–43

Responsibility remains attributable to people and organizations. Oversight, impact assessment, audit and due diligence connect accountability to human rights and environmental protection.

Passage checked 2026-10-11 · unesco-accountability

Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (opens in a new tab)

III.2 — Fairness and non-discrimination, paragraph 29; Human oversight, paragraph 35

The recommendation calls for effective remedy against discriminatory algorithmic decisions and attribution of responsibility, including in remedy situations.

Passage checked 2026-10-11 · unesco-remedy

04 · Voice before the harm, not only after it

Individual complaints arrive after harm and miss patterns that fall on groups. Unions propose consultation before workplace AI is deployed; impact assessments can include the public. Both only work with explicit requirements, or they become a formality.

source-assertionConfidence: highContestability: low

Labour organisations propose making worker voice a legal requirement: compulsory union consultation before high-risk workplace AI is deployed, plus a right to human review.

Inspect evidence · 1 passage

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

The AI Bill Project (opens in a new tab)

Summary of the draft Artificial Intelligence (Regulation and Employment Rights) Bill

The draft bill would give unions a statutory right to be consulted before employers deploy high-risk AI decision systems, and give workers a right to human review and a personal explanation of AI decisions.

Scope note: Labour voice. Model legislation drafted by a union federation; it is a proposal, not law.

Passage checked 2026-10-09 · tuc-consultation-right

source-assertionConfidence: highContestability: low

Public consultation inside an impact assessment becomes a formality unless it comes with explicit requirements.

Inspect evidence · 1 passage

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Assembling Accountability: Algorithmic Impact Assessment for the Public Interest (opens in a new tab)

“Public Consultation” section, failure modes (about pp. 21–22 of the PDF)

Public consultation in an impact assessment becomes perfunctory when it is held only out of obligation and without explicit requirements.

Scope note: Public-interest research on how impact assessments succeed or fail.

Passage checked 2026-10-09 · data-society-consultation

05 · Worked example · fictional

A benefits office flags claimants for fraud review

Fictional exercise. A national benefits office uses a model to flag claimants for fraud investigation. Flagged claimants have payments paused while a caseworker reviews the file. A complaints form exists on the office's website. No real country, agency or legal classification is assumed.

  1. 1. Does the claimant know a model was involved?

    A route to challenge starts with notice. If the letter says only that payments are paused, the claimant cannot know what to contest.

    Contestable decisionAffected people

  2. 2. Can the claimant afford to use the route?

    A paused payment is the claimant's income. A complaint that takes months, or needs a lawyer, is not usable by the people most affected.

    Complaint and appeal routesAffected people

  3. 3. Who can change the decision?

    If the complaint goes to the same office that relies on the model, ask what independence the reviewer has. An outside ombudsman or tribunal is a different institution with different powers.

    Regulator or public authoritySupervision and regulatory review

  4. 4. Who sees the pattern?

    One claimant sees one decision. Only the office, an auditor or a civil-society group can see whether flags fall unevenly on particular groups. Ask who has the data to look.

    Civil society and independent researchersImpact assessment

  5. 5. Was anyone asked before deployment?

    Check whether claimants, advocates or staff were consulted before the model was switched on, and whether that consultation had any power to change the design.

    Impact assessmentMeaningful human oversight

A complaints form is the start of a safeguard, not the safeguard. It becomes real when the affected person is told, can afford to act, reaches a body that can change the outcome, and when someone is watching for patterns no individual can see.

Check your understanding

A law gives everyone the right to contest automated decisions. What still needs checking?

Choose an answer to check your reasoning.

What this lesson does not settle

This draft lesson has not yet been reviewed by the framework's author or an outside reviewer. Brazil's provisions come from a bill pending in October 2026 and may change. The fictional exercise draws on patterns reported in public welfare systems but describes no real case. Evidence from disability, migrant and low-income communities about using these routes needs further research.

Explore complaint and appeal routes in the modelRead the concept record