“We have rethought the way we work “, says Belgian liberal Rik Daems, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). This Assembly has not ceased its activities since last April, when it had to cancel the spring part-session. The summer meeting was replaced by a meeting of the Standing Committee, which debated and voted on reports prepared before the pandemic, and the autumn meeting - organized by videoconference in the format of a meeting of the Standing Committee enlarged to include all members - was divided into two parts between 12/13 October and 22/23 October.
Each meeting has a “red thread”: “Covid-19 and Human Rights” for the five reports adopted earlier this month, “Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights” for the seven on Thursday's agenda.
“As of now”, says Rik Daems, “we want to take up certain topics and develop them further in supplementary reports with resolutions and recommendations to the Committee of Ministers. This one has the obligation to reply to us within three months, either by a ‘no reply’, or by an intergovernmental initiative which may eventually take the form of a new Convention". PACE thus wants to develop a “holistic approach” more likely to give it a role of initiator in the decision-making process.
“The themes are also defined in relation to the rotating presidency of the Committee of Ministers”, he adds. “The Covid reports will give substance to the Athens Declaration which will close the Greek Presidency in November, the Artificial Intelligence reports correspond to the priorities of the German Presidency which will follow and the ‘Environment and Human Rights’ reports planned for April have been drawn up in connection with the successive Georgian, Greek and German Presidencies from November 2019 to May 2021”.
In addition to the holistic approach, there is therefore a desire for synchronisation between the statutory organs of the Council of Europe: PACE, the Committee of Ministers and the Secretary General, who has the power to ensure that the policies promoted are implemented. “This is a trilogue”, the PACE President summed up.
In practice, he notes, “this way of working is motivating for the rapporteurs, who keep in touch with each other and with the permanent representatives of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs sitting on the Committee of Ministers”.
This was the case for the seven reports on 'Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights' that will be debated on Thursday, namely: the need for democratic governance of AI, the role of AI in the police and criminal justice systems, discrimination resulting from AI, opportunities and dangers of AI for fundamental freedoms, AI in the health field, AI and labour markets, legal aspects related to autonomous vehicles. These texts also refer to the “Ten Steps on Artificial Intelligence” recommended in 2019 by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.
“We have gone as far as we can in these reports and recommendations to the Committee of Ministers”, comments Rik Daems. “If our work is still incomplete at this stage, it is intended to be proactive, as will be our approach on ‘Environment and Human Rights’ in April”. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)