Mr Antti Häkkänen is the Minister of Justice of Finland. He is a Member of Parliament and a former member of its Constitutional Law Committee. He is also the Vice Chair of the National Coalition Party. Lawyer (LL.M) by training, Minister Häkkänen has emphasized the importance of the rule of law for inclusive democracy and the full realization of human rights. He has played an active role in the European Union regarding the promotion of the rule of law. Minister Häkkänen has launched initiatives related to engaging citizens and is in particular interested in the possibilities provided by new technologies. Although artificial intelligence may well open new horizons, Minister Häkkänen has actively voiced the different legal and ethical challenges AI development may pose. He has underlined the need of an active discussion for a European approach for the development of AI, guaranteeing that individuals can trust their fundamental rights being fully respected.

Liliane Maury Pasquier, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe since June 2018, is a Swiss parliamentarian from the city of Geneva.

From 1983-1991 she was a municipal councillor in Veyrier (Switzerland) and from 1993-1996 a member of the Grand Council in Geneva. A national parliamentarian since 1995, she has exercised several important functions in the National Council and the Council of States, including Chair of the National Council and of the Federal Assembly in 2002, Chair of the Delegation for the Relations with the French Parliament (2009-2011 and since 2018), Chair of the Committee for Social Security and Public Health (2013-2015).

After joining the Parliamentary Assembly in 2007, she chaired the Assembly’s Swiss delegation from 2011-2013 and presided over the Group of Socialists, Democrats and Greens (January to June 2018). She was a member of several committees: Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs (chairing from 2016-2018); Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development; Political Affairs and Democracy; as well as Monitoring.

She is a qualified independent midwife and from 2009-2013 was Chair of the Swiss Federation of Midwives.