Making AI Safe in the Real World: From Governance Principles to Operational Tools
Council of Europe
Session 241
From Treaty to Toolkit: Bridging the AI Governance Implementation Gap
The global conversation on AI governance has produced an unprecedented volume of principles, declarations and frameworks. Yet the central challenge for governments, international organisations and development finance institutions is no longer articulating what responsible AI should look like — it is knowing what to do on Monday morning when a health ministry is procuring an AI-assisted triage system, a justice administration is deploying algorithmic risk tools, or a national data agency is building a digital public infrastructure backbone.
The Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law (CETS 225) represents a qualitative shift in that landscape. As the first binding international treaty on AI, it moves governance from aspiration to legal obligation. The HUDERIA methodology — the Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law Impact Assessment developed by the CAI/CDNET— translates those obligations into structured and practical instruments that practitioners can apply at country/sector and project level.
This session convenes the three institutional nodes that together constitute a complete operational architecture for AI governance: the normative layer (Council of Europe / CETS 225 / HUDERIA), the development finance layer (World Bank), and the technical standards layer (ISO/IEC SC 42). It does so not through institutional self-presentation, but by grounding every contribution in real deployment challenges voiced by practitioners from the Global South — the actors who most need tools that work, and who have least been served by the principles era.
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C1. The role of governments and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development
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C2. Information and communication infrastructure
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C3. Access to information and knowledge
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C4. Capacity building
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C5. Building confidence and security in use of ICTs
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C6. Enabling environment
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C7. ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life — E-government
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C7. ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life — E-health
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C7. ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life — E-employment
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C8. Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content
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C11. International and regional cooperation
This session directly advances the WSIS Action Lines by demonstrating how the first binding international treaty on AI (CETS 225) and its accompanying impact assessment methodology (HUDERIA) operationalise responsible AI governance across government, health and justice sectors (C6, C7-E-government, C7-E-health). It models multi-stakeholder and inter-institutional cooperation between a human rights treaty body, development finance and technical standards (C1, C11), and addresses capacity gaps for Global South states navigating AI procurement without adequate normative tools (C3, C4, C5). The session's grounding in non-discrimination, cultural bias assessment and inclusive design links to C8, while the binding normative architecture it presents constitutes the enabling environment C6 envisions for trustworthy digital systems.
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Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all
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Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
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Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
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Goal 8: Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all
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Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
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Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
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Goal 16: Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies
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Goal 17: Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development
Responsible AI governance is a prerequisite for delivering on the 2030 Agenda. This session demonstrates how CETS 225 and HUDERIA provide governments — particularly in the Global South — with the binding normative and methodological tools needed to ensure AI systems in health (SDG 3), justice and public administration (SDG 16) serve rather than undermine human rights and equality. By addressing algorithmic discrimination and bias in employment and service delivery, the session contributes to reducing inequalities within and among countries (SDG 10). The joined-up architecture presented — combining a human rights treaty, development finance safeguards and ISO/IEC technical standards — models the kind of multi-institutional partnership SDG 17 envisions for technology governance. Capacity building for practitioners from developing states (SDG 4) and the non-discrimination framework embedded in HUDERIA (SDG 5) complete the picture of AI governance as a sustainable development enabler.
- Objective 1: Close all digital divides and accelerate progress across the Sustainable Development Goals
- Objective 2: Expand inclusion in and benefits from the digital economy for all
- Objective 3: Foster an inclusive, open, safe and secure digital space that respects, protects and promotes human rights
- Objective 4: Advance responsible, equitable and interoperable data governance approaches
- Objective 5: Enhance international governance of artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity
https://www.coe.int/en/web/artificial-intelligence/the-framework-convention-on-artificial-intelligence
https://www.coe.int/en/web/artificial-intelligence/cdnet
https://www.coe.int/en/web/artificial-intelligence/huderia-risk-and-impact-assessment-of-ai-systems
https://rm.coe.int/prems-002726-gbr-2006-huderia-texte-web-a4/48802ba7b1