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Speech by Bjørn Berge, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe

ROUND 1: How does the Seoul Statement relate to your organization's work, and why is it important to ensure AI is developed and deployed responsibly and inclusively?

The Seoul Statement reflects the Council of Europe’s stance that AI should be used for good — and that we must work together to ensure that the use of AI does not encroach on human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

Sadly, we are seeing AI used to undermine our core values — to perpetrate all manner of cybercrime, from fraud to online child abuse. And it is used to spread disinformation, and for foreign information manipulation and interference — promoting social unrest and in some cases, reaching to the very heart of democracy by undermining free and fair elections.

In a world where it is now almost impossible to tell truth from falsehood, we saw in the recent Moldovan parliamentary elections the use of deep-fake videos, for example, targeting politicians including President Sandu herself.

But we there is genuine political will in many states to regulate AI and to provide practical tools, including a firm basis of education — to ensure that AI is inclusive, fair and safe.

The Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law — opened for signature last year — is the first binding international treaty designed precisely to anchor these shared standards in international law.

It has already been signed by a number of states across different regions — including the US, Canada, Japan and Uruguay — because this treaty is open to non-member states. The Convention is now in the process of ratification.

Assisting with the practical application of the Framework Convention, in 2024 the Council of Europe developed the HUDERIA Methodology, providing guidance and a structured approach to risk and impact assessments for Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems.

The HUDERIA Methodology is specifically tailored to protect and promote human rights, democracy and the rule of law. It can be used by both public and private actors to help identify and address risks and impacts to human rights, democracy and the rule of law throughout the lifecycle of AI systems.

This year we built on this, adopting the HUDERIA MODEL, providing concrete guidance on risk assessment and oversight of AI systems. The Methodology and Model form a governance toolkit to assist governments and industry to ensure responsible and accountable AI.

The Council of Europe provides cooperation and training programmes on AI Governance through the HUDERIA Academies and HUDERIA Platforms — and this support is extended to partners in Asia, Africa and the Americas — because responsible AI must be a shared global project, not a regional luxury.

The Council of Europe’s AI Framework Convention, together with the HUDERIA programmes, provides a crucial bridge between human rights and technical standards, and a foundation for inclusive, trustworthy AI governance worldwide.

ROUND 2: How can legal and technical standard-setting communities work together to ensure that international standards for AI are not only technically sound but also grounded in human rights and democratic values?

Artificial intelligence has changed the face of technology. AI interacts directly with ordinary people, influencing their decisions and affecting their rights. It affects every aspect of our lives — whether we are considered for a job, or housing, or whether a life is saved on the operating table. It may drive disinformation or undue influence on voters and political parties and even undermine elections — AI is now affecting every aspect of our lives.

So standards must bridge the gap between ethics and engineering. AI demands a new kind of partnership between technologists and public institutions — one that balances algorithms with the rights and needs of real people.

It can be difficult to keep up with the pace of Artificial Intelligence, which is why regulatory systems must be forward thinking and adaptable. They must be planned and considered with the input of interested parties from IT companies to public authorities – because that is the only way they can succeed.

The Council of Europe is working closely with the UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies, UN Development Programme, OECD, UNESCO, ISO, and other standard-setting bodies to ensure coherence between legal frameworks and technical standards.

Our AI Framework Convention sets the standards for responsible AI, adaptable to national contexts but rooted in global values built on human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Technical standards bodies then build the operational detail that allows these principles to work in practice.

The Framework Convention marks the first time that technical governance concepts — such as reliability, risk and impact management, and oversight across the AI lifecycle — have been explicitly anchored in international law.

The HUDERIA methodology is building that bridge from the human-rights side toward the technical community—translating values into risk-assessment procedures, control mechanisms, and practical guidance that align with the engineering world’s precision and rigour.

But our methods cannot succeed in isolation. The Council of Europe values the work of the technical standardisation community — ISO, IEC, ITU, IEEE, NIST and others — who have been building the foundations for trustworthy technology for decades.

Their expertise in defining metrics, benchmarks, and interoperability frameworks is indispensable. Our Convention does not duplicate that work — it complements and connects it by providing a legal and ethical foundation upon which these standards may rest.

This is a joint endeavour: bringing together the engineering precision of the standards community and the rights-based perspective of international law, so that together we can shape AI governance that is both technically sound and socially legitimate. Our mutual task is to make the bridge between precision engineering and human rights strong, inclusive, and future-proof.

ROUND 3: Wrap-up / key takeaway

The Seoul Statement is an excellent summary of how to achieve responsible AI. But it reminds us that combating misuse requires a full suite of action — encompassing regulation, education and standards, and interaction and collaboration between the public and private sectors.

Responsible AI must be based on a solid platform of human rights — AI knows no borders and it reaches every aspect of our lives, so states must work together and with the private sector, collaborating and sharing knowledge to advance technology that benefits us all.

The Council of Europe is already putting the Seoul Statement into action. Through the Framework Convention on AI and HUDERIA, we are connecting rights with technology, and protecting human rights across the lifecycle of AI technology.

But this will only work if organisations and nations work together to support the standards we hold dear. We encourage all states — and the Convention is open to non-member states — to sign and ratify the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law.