The brain-computer interface: new rights or new threats to fundamental freedoms?

Recommendation 2184 (2020)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 22 October 2020 (see Doc. 15147, report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, rapporteur: Mr Olivier Becht).

1. The Assembly refers to its Resolution 2344 (2020) “The brain–computer interface: new rights or new threats to fundamental freedoms?” It recalls that this resolution was adopted as relevant work was ongoing within the Council of Europe by the Committee on Bioethics (DH-BIO), concerning neurotechnology, and by the Ad hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAHAI).

2. The Assembly therefore calls on the Committee of Ministers to:

2.1 support work within the DH-BIO on human rights and neurotechnology, including by supplementing its existing terms of reference to ensure that consideration is given to the possibility of protecting “neurorights” through an additional protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ETS No. 5);

2.2 take into account the potentially unique and unprecedented impact on human rights of the use of artificial intelligence in connection with brain–computer interface systems when assessing the feasibility of a legal framework for artificial intelligence.