Human rights in a digital world event held next week

An international seminar will be held next Monday (18 October) on the theme of “Human Rights in the digital sphere”.

It will bring together experts from different legal systems and jurisdictions, judges of the European Court of Human Rights and governmental representatives from Europe and elsewhere, to examine the impact of digital transformation on human rights.

Critical issues on the agenda are how to determine the “borderline” between moderating harmful or illegal content online and censoring freedom of expression, as well as who should decide if specific content is harmful or illegal, and who is responsible for acting against it if it is.

The seminar will also address the implications of the use of artificial intelligence for human rights, in particular the risk of discrimination and the challenges of combatting cyber crime with the appropriate rule of law safeguards.

The event is co-organised by the Council of Europe with particular involvement of the European Court of Human Rights - the René Cassin Foundation and the Strasbourg general consulates of Japan and the USA, to mark the 25th anniversary of the observer status of both those states to the Council of Europe.

Opening speakers at the event include Robert Spano, president of the European Court of Human Rights; Bjørn Berge, deputy secretary general of the Council of Europe; ambassador Takeshi Akamatsu, permanent observer of Japan to the Council of Europe; Darragh Paradiso, consul general and deputy permanent observer of the US to the Council of Europe; and Emmanuel Decaux, president of the René Cassin Foundation (International Institute of Human Rights).

The event is in a hybrid format and will be webcast live.

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