The global regulatory agenda on AI is currently swept by the upcoming enactmentof the EU AI Act. While the EU AI Act is a landmark law, it was not the first initiative to regulate AI. Indeed, in 2019, the Council of Europe (“CoE”) established the Ad Hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence, which later evolved into the Committee on Artificial Intelligence (“CAI”). Among its various objectives such as international cooperation and social engagement, the CAI is primarily tasked with developing a comprehensive legal framework for AI that aligns with human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.

To this end, on December 18th, 2023, the CAI presented the Draft Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence, Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law (“DFC”), setting out a general regulatory framework for AI systems. Designed to be future-proof and technology-neutral, the DFC is intended to complement the existing international human rights standards to address the emerging risks of AI technologies.