On Thursday 18 April, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe unanimously approved the draft “Convention on Artificial Intelligence, Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law” drawn up by the Strasbourg-based organisation.
Indispensable in the procedure for drawing up a Council of Europe treaty, this vote by the Assembly for an opinion precedes the adoption of the text by the Committee of Ministers of Foreign Affairs before potential signatures and ratifications by member states, or third countries, since this is the first international treaty on AI open to all states in the world.
Regretting that the draft convention “does not cover to an equal extent public and private actors”, the Assembly calls on future States parties to the convention to choose to apply the provisions of the framework convention fully to the activities of private actors, while hoping that a dynamic interpretation by its control mechanism - the Conference of the Parties - “will foster advances over time, through reporting requirements and peer pressure”.
The Assembly proposed several amendments providing for limitations, or even bans, in the event of AI activities not complying with international human rights law.
It also proposed a specific provision on health and the environment.
The text was negotiated by representatives of the 46 member states of the Council of Europe, the European Union and non-European states such as the United States, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, Costa Rica, Peru and Uruguay.
Link to Opinion: https://aeur.eu/f/bvl (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)