Governments across Europe are increasingly deploying artificial intelligence (AI) tools to fulfil their obligations under the right to health and advance the core functions of public health: prevention, promotion, and protection. Yet despite their promise, these technologies risk reinforcing health inequities, especially for those marginalized by intersecting forms of disadvantage such as race, gender, disability, migration status, and class. This chapter applies an intersectional lens to examine how AI-driven public health interventions affect states’ legal duties under international and European human rights law. It analyses how AI is transforming public health governance and assesses whether current EU regulatory frameworks, particularly the Artificial Intelligence Act, can safeguard the right to health. Focusing on use cases such as population cancer screening, health chatbots, and epidemic surveillance, the chapter shows how algorithmic systems often replicate structural exclusions and undermine the principles of availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality (AAAQ). It concludes by proposing legal and policy tools to align AI governance with intersectional health justice.
Cite as: van Kolfschooten, H. (2026). Governing AI in Public Health: Advancing the Right to Health Through an Intersectional Lens. In: Balestrieri, M., Cauduro, A. (eds) The Legal Anatomy of the Body. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 142. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-26434-3_17
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