Francisca Van Dunem at the Council of Europe Ministerial Conference

Organised in the framework of the Hungarian Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of this international organisation, the event aims to take a step forward in mitigating the emerging challenges of cross-border digitisation of Justice, thus continuing the previous conference "The Challenges of e-Justice in Europe", organised by the French Presidency of the Council of Europe in 2019 in Strasbourg. It also aims to promote a substantive dialogue between States on the challenges posed by digitisation and the use of Artificial Intelligence technologies in Justice and cross-border judicial cooperation.

Having also by reference the various ongoing works at the Council of Europe in the field of Justice, information society, algorithms and artificial intelligence, Ministers will be invited to discuss, specifically, the issue of the use of electronic devices in compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights and also the issue of the use of artificial intelligence in judicial proceedings, also in compliance with the same instrument.

It is recalled that the Council of Europe has been working on assessing and anticipating the impact of new technologies and developing tools of practical and legal nature to ensure that these technologies continue to respect human rights and the principles of democracy and the rule of law.

Examples include the " European Ethical Charter on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in judicial systems and their environment”, adopted in December 2018, which sets out guiding principles to be observed in the development of artificial intelligence tools in European judicial systems and the "Guidelines on electronic evidence in civil and administrative proceedings", adopted in January 2019.

For more information on the Council of Europe see www.coe.int/en/web/portal.