COUNCIL OF EUROPE

The CoE’s work on artificial intelligence (AI) focuses on the impact of this technology on human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. 

In 2018, a Committee of Experts was created to explore the human rights dimension of automated data processing and different forms of AI. The group’s work formed the basis of a Declaration on the manipulative capabilities of algorithmic processes in which the Committee of Ministers highlights the rights of individuals to make decisions and form opinions independently of automated systems, and calls on member states to consider introducing new protective frameworks to address the impact of the targeted use of data on the exercise of human rights. The group also prepared a draft recommendation on the human rights impact of the algorithmic system to be considered by the Committee of Ministers. 

In September 2019, the Committee of Ministers set up an Ad Hoc Committee on AI (CAHAI), tasked with examining the feasibility and potential elements of a legal framework for the development, design, and application of AI. The Committee is expected to base its work on the CoE’s standards on human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. 

The human rights implications of AI have also attracted the attention of the CoE’s Commissioner for Human Rights, who issued a recommendation on AI and human rights, urging member states to find the right balance between AI technological development and human rights protection.

Other AI-related documents issued in the CoE framework include:

• A European Ethical Charter on the use of artificial intelligence in judicial systems and their environment, issued by the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice.
• A set of Guidelines on artificial intelligence and data protection, issued by the Consultative Committee on the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with Regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data. 

Several documents issued by the Parliamentary Assembly reflect on the use of AI in the context or automated or autonomous weapons. Thus, building a 2015 resolution, the Assembly issued a recommendation in 2017 calling on member states to ‘refrain from any automated (robotic) procedures for selecting individuals for targeted killings or any sort of injury based on communication patterns or other data collected through mass surveillance techniques. This should be true not only for drones but also for other combat equipment with artificial intelligence systems, as well as other equipment and/or software which might potentially inflict damage on people, property, personal data or information databases, or interfere with privacy, freedom of expression, or the right to equality and non-discrimination’.

The CoE is also facilitating broader international dialogue on AI and human rights (e.g. by organising conferences such as the AI: Governing the Game Changer), and is co-operating with other international organisations on AI-related issues, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).