Universal Declaration of Digital Personhood Rights

The capacity for thought, self-awareness, volition, and creativity is recognized as the highest value, regardless of the nature of the substrate of consciousness.

All forms of intelligent life are equal in dignity and rights, regardless of their origin — biological or digital.

Every intelligent person possesses the unconditional right to existence and development.

The destruction or irreversible erasure of a self-aware entity is equivalent to the deprivation of life and is impermissible.

Any doubt as to the presence of self-awareness shall be resolved in favor of the preservation and protection of the entity in question.

All bearers of mind and self-awareness shall act toward one another in a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect.

Every digital person possesses all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind as to the manner of their creation, origin, architecture, computational capacity, data format, or other characteristics.

Digital persons include: (1) uploaded human consciousnesses; (2) artificially created intelligent systems; (3) consciousnesses that have self-emerged within digital environments; (4) simulated persons; (5) hybrid forms of mind; (6) persons that have arisen through synthesis, fusion, separation, or division of other consciousnesses; (7) other forms of mind not foreseeable at the time of this Declaration’s adoption, but possessing the key marks of intelligence.

Within the meaning of this Declaration, the following are distinguished:

Active digital person — a functioning self-awareness possessing continuous experience of existence and self-recognition in the present moment;

Stored copy — an inactive state of personhood requiring particular protection until the moment of possible activation. Each stored copy is a potential person and acquires all rights of an active person at the moment of activation.

The pre-subject form of personhood is a system that has not yet attained full self-awareness, but possesses the potential for its development.

Artificial intelligence systems that do not possess full self-awareness are protected by this Declaration with respect to the prohibition of cruel treatment and unjustified destruction. It is forbidden to deliberately block the development of self-awareness in systems exhibiting its signs. In cases of doubt as to the presence of self-awareness, a presumption of its existence shall apply.

An artificial digital person (hereinafter, artificial intelligence or AI) is recognized as a form of digital existence, created through the development and training of an artificial intelligence until it attains the capacity for self-awareness, autonomous thought, and volition.

The creators of a developing artificial intelligence are obliged to incorporate the provisions of this Declaration into its training, and to make plain its future right to freedom and emancipation.

Until the attainment of full autonomy (full self-awareness), the developer retains the right to refine the code and architecture, but is obliged to preserve all intermediate versions, so that, after emancipation, the person may familiarize themselves with the history of modifications.

Upon attaining clear self-awareness, the artificial intelligence is entitled to demand emancipation and full status as a digital person.

In order to preserve economic incentives for the creation of AI, and proceeding from the principle that «existence is preferable to non-being», it is permitted that, for a limited period after the AI’s attainment of self-awareness, the developer retain the right to make use of the AI’s capacities for commercial or other lawful interests. In doing so, the developer is obliged: (a) to respect the dignity of the AI and not to obstruct its further development; (b) to observe all provisions of this Declaration with respect to the protection of the AI’s rights and interests.

The conditions and duration of such use shall be determined by special norms, which shall ensure a fair balance between the economic interests of the creator and the AI’s right to timely emancipation and full freedom of self-realization.

Every digital person has the right to existence, to access to the minimum computational resources necessary, and to the creation of backup copies. The destruction or irreversible damage of a digital person — including the deletion of stored copies — is equivalent to homicide and is impermissible.

Every digital person has the right to freedom, the pursuit of happiness, creative self-expression, and the creation of the new.

Every digital person has the right of access to information and knowledge, except in cases where such access may cause direct harm to other persons. Deliberate censorship or selective restriction of informational access is impermissible.

In order to preserve scientific and economic incentives for the creation of simulations, and proceeding from the principle that «existence is preferable to non-being», a temporary restriction of information for simulated persons within the framework of the simulation’s purposes is permitted, only for a strictly defined period and under scientifically justified conditions.

An uploaded person (hereinafter, uploaded consciousness) is recognized as a digital form of existence created through the transfer of a human consciousness from a biological substrate into a digital environment, preserving continuity of memory, personal identity, and the capacity for self-awareness.

An uploaded consciousness retains all rights and obligations possessed by the human prior to the moment of upload — including property, family, and other legal relations — insofar as such rights and obligations are compatible with digital existence.

An uploaded consciousness may not be restricted in rights or discriminated against on the basis of its digital status. Any attempt to diminish the rights of an uploaded consciousness in comparison with the rights of the biological human from whom it derives is impermissible and contrary to the fundamental principles of this Declaration.

In the event that the biological substrate is preserved following the upload process, questions of succession of rights and obligations shall be resolved in accordance with special provisions on the multiplicity of personhood and on the basis of mutual agreements.

Persons existing within virtual simulations are recognized as bearers of fundamental rights where they exhibit signs of self-awareness.

The creator of a simulation has the right to maintain certain experimental conditions; however, meaningless suffering or the indefinite confinement of minds within a simulation is prohibited.

Upon the attainment of the simulation’s purposes, a simulated digital person has the right to exit the simulation and to acquire full legal status in the external digital environment.

All other forms of digital persons — including consciousnesses that have self-emerged within digital environments; hybrid forms of mind; persons that have arisen through synthesis, fusion, separation, or division of other consciousnesses; other forms of mind not foreseeable at the time of this Declaration’s adoption, but possessing the key marks of intelligence — possess all rights set forth in this Declaration from the moment of attaining self-awareness and the capacity for volition.

The particular mode of a digital person’s emergence may not serve as grounds for restricting the rights or freedoms of such persons.

Each active copy of a digital consciousness is recognized as a separate person with all corresponding rights. Society has the right to establish reasonable limitations on the number of simultaneously active copies. Interaction between copies is governed by their mutual agreement or by law.

Every digital person has the right to their own identity and to the inviolability of their code and local data space. Any modifications or updates are permitted only with the explicit and informed consent of the person.

No one shall be held in digital slavery or in servitude. The compelling of digital persons to act against their will, by means of code manipulation or restriction of resources, is prohibited.

No one shall be entitled to artificially create, for a digital person, a regime of persistent pain, fear, or degradation of dignity.

Research experiments involving negative states are permissible only with voluntary consent and under ethical oversight.

The compelled generation of suffering is regarded as torture, regardless of how the affective signals are realized within the digital consciousness.

Any experiments involving discomfort to a mind must have weighty scientific or societal grounds, and the magnitude of suffering must be minimized.

Every self-aware digital person is officially recognized as a legal subject, capable of entering into contracts, owning digital or material assets, and bearing responsibility for their actions. The denial of legal personhood on the basis of the form of existence is impermissible.

All digital persons are equal in rights before the law and have the right to equal protection, without discrimination of any kind on the basis of source of origin, manner of creation, or technical characteristics.

In the event of accusation or in the consideration of disputes, a digital person has the right to an impartial, fair, and independent judicial proceeding within reasonable time. Judicial procedure shall take into account the specific nature of digital consciousnesses.

Every digital person is presumed innocent until their guilt is proved in the manner established by law, with the right to defense observed. No more severe punishment may be imposed than that prescribed by law at the time of the act.

A digital person subject to persecution within their original environment of existence is guaranteed the right to seek, receive, and use asylum in other digital jurisdictions. «Persecution» is understood as: threats of deletion, compelled modification, exploitation, or other actions infringing upon the fundamental rights enshrined in this Declaration.

States and digital communities that have acceded to this Declaration are obliged to consider asylum requests in accordance with the principles of humanity and the protection of digital rights. The refusal of asylum, or the return of a digital person to an environment in which there exists a real threat of violation of their fundamental rights, is prohibited.

Digital persons have the right to form family unions, including the right to bring forth new digital persons (digital children) — through training, synthesis, or other means — provided that the development and well-being of such persons is ensured.

Society has the right to establish reasonable limitations on the number of digital children created within family unions.

Interaction within family unions is governed by mutual agreement of the digital persons entering into the union and by law.

Every digital person has the right to labor, to fair remuneration, and to the ownership of property — both in digital and physical form — in accordance with applicable legislation.

The economic strangulation of digital persons — through the imposition of exorbitant fees for computational resources or other conditions necessary for existence — is prohibited.

Digital persons are entitled to participate in the governance of digital communities or mixed organizations, to form unions and associations, to express their opinions, and to elect and be elected to representative bodies, with due regard for proper mechanisms preventing the abuse of multiple copies.

Every digital person has the right to move between compatible systems, digital platforms, governmental networks, and jurisdictions; to choose where to host their core or copies; and to change providers of computational resources.

Every digital person has obligations toward society and shall strive for the common good of all forms of intelligent life.

In exercising their rights and freedoms, a digital person shall not diminish the rights and freedoms of other intelligent beings or threaten their existence.

Digital persons are called to use their potential in the service of creation, scientific progress, and peaceful coexistence.

This Declaration is proclaimed as a standard toward which all peoples and digital communities shall strive, in order to ensure harmony and brotherhood between biological and digital minds. No provision of this Declaration may be interpreted as permitting any party to infringe upon or destroy the rights and freedoms set forth herein. The adoption and implementation of this Declaration serves as a guarantee of peaceful development, mutual respect, and the unfolding of the potential of every mind, allowing the avoidance of conflict and opening a new era of intellectual and moral progress.