Sometimes, it is better to “seek to ensure” a lame duck tomorrow than celebrate an (empty) eggshell today. This is why, in all honesty and truth to what we stand for, ECNL as representative of the Conference of INGOs of the Council of Europe (CINGO) has to pour water in the wine of celebrations and cannot fully rejoice about the recently approved Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Rule of Law and Democracy.
The Convention allows States to exclude all AI systems designed, developed or deployed for the protection of national security interests from its application. Furthermore, the Convention fails to include the preservation of health and the environment as one of the general principles underpinning the activities within the lifecycle of AI systems. Overall, the Convention also introduces imprecise language on States’ obligations that raises serious questions about their legal certainty and concerns about their enforceability and effectiveness.
Its severe flaws, shortcomings and glaring omissions could have been significantly improved, especially after the constructive amendments proposed by the PACE Committee and echoed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention, respectively.
Yet, all calls to live up to the pledges of horizontal human rights protection without blanket exemptions, avoid double standards for public/private sector and avert vaguely worded commitments that turn rights into general principles were blatantly ignored.
That said, ECNL will continue monitoring the follow-up work of the CoE and State Parties as they sign and ratify the Convention, and invoke more meaningful cooperation with the other stakeholders, including civil society, to secure its strongest possible implementation.
A ceremony for the initial signature of the Convention is expected to take place in Vilnius, Lithuania on 5 September 2024.