The Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law: An Introduction to the Special Issue

This paper offers some introductory remarks to the special issue on the Council of Europe “Framework Convention on AI: Comparative, EU, International and Sectoral Perspectives”. The paper first situates the CoE AI Convention within the emerging body of international norms for the global governance of AI. The survey will focus specifically on norms attempting to guarantee compliance of AI technologies and uses with the protection of fundamental values, including those integrated into the CoE mandate, i.e. protection of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The paper then contextualizes the contents of this special issue, that collects the proceedings of a conference on the CoE AI Convention organised by the University of Trieste in May 2025 within the research project “The Dark Side of Algorithms under the Comparative Lens: Automated Administrative Decisions between Efficiency and Due Process” (AutAD, 2023-2026).