TECH NEWS

Convention on AI and human rights (CoE process)

6 May 2024
Godfred Meba
        

In 2021 the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE) approved the creation of a Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAI) tasked with elaborating a legal instrument on the development, design, and application of artificial intelligence (AI) systems based on the CoE’s standards on human rights, democracy and the rule of law, and conducive to innovation.

The Committee started working in 2022 and it finalised the text of a Draft Framework Convention on AI, human rights, democracy and the rule of law at its March 2024 meeting. The instrument is awaiting approval from the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers.

CAI main tasks

Evolution of negotiations

In February 2023, CAI decided to make public the revised “Zero Draft” [Framework] Convention on Artificial Intelligence, Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law. The draft was prepared by the CAI Chair with the support of the Secretariat and constitutes the basis for the convention’s drafting process. 

In July 2023, a Consolidated Working Draft of the Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence, Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law was published. This version follows the first reading of the revised Zero Draft and was prepared by the Chair of the CAI, with the assistance of the Secretariat. Intended to serve as a basis for further negotiations, the draft contains provisions which have preliminarily been agreed to during the first reading of the revised Zero Draft, as well as proposals drafted by the Chair with the assistance of the Secretariat.

At its 8th meeting in December 2023, the CAI decided to make the Draft Framework Convention that contains the outcomes of the 2nd reading public. This document will serve as the basis for the 3rd and final reading. It does not preclude the final outcome of negotiations in the CAI.

CAI finalised the text of the Draft Framework Convention on AI, human rights, democracy and the rule of law at its March 2024 meeting. At the core of this instrument are a set of principles related to activities within the lifecycle of AI systems: human dignity and human autonomy, transparency and oversight, accountability and responsibility, equality and non-discrimination, privacy and personal data protection, reliability, and safe innovation. The draft instrument needs to be formally endorsed by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. 

CAI meetings

The committee convened twice in 2022 and conducted six meetings in 2023. There were two meetings in 2024.

Previous meetings:

Previous work

CAI builds on the work carried out between 2019 and 2021 by the CoE’s Ad hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAHAI), which was tasked with ‘the feasibility and potential elements on the basis of broad multi-stakeholder consultations, of a legal framework for the development, design and application of artificial intelligence, based on the Council of Europe’s standards on human rights, democracy and the rule of law’. 

At the conclusion of its work, in December 2021, CAHAI adopted a document outlining Possible elements of a legal framework on artificial intelligence, based on the Council of Europe’s standards on human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

Other documents produced as part of the Committee’s work include: