International Bar Association (IBA) joins the Council of Europe’s AI Convention

The global association of the legal profession is the first association of lawyers to join the Convention on Artificial Intelligence to defend Human Rights.

The International Bar Association (IBA), the world’s leading association of legal professionals, has formally acceded to the Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law.

The Association, chaired by Gómez-Acebo & Pombo partner Almudena Arpón de Mendívil, currently has more than 80,000 members, including leading law firms in each of the 170 jurisdictions represented and 200 bar associations.

The Framework Convention is the first legally binding international treaty for AI governance, aimed at ensuring that the entire life cycle of these systems respects human rights, democracy and the rule of law. As Almudena noted, ‘The Convention lays a necessary foundation for protecting human rights, democracy and the rule of law in our digital age. Lawyers and bar associations around the world should ensure its swift adoption and implementation’.

To this, the IBA President added: ‘The legal profession cannot be a stranger to the AI revolution. We must play an active and central role in the governance of technological change and to prevent developments that could jeopardise fundamental values of our modern societies – human rights, the defence of democracy and the foundation of all of these, the rule of law. We must also embrace new technologies and the great benefits they bring.

This initiative follows on from the report The Future is Now: Artificial Intelligence and the Legal Profession, published by the IBA together with the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Policy (CAIDP), led by Marc Rotenberg. Launched at the IBA’s annual conference in Mexico City, the report highlights the importance of the legal sector actively participating in AI governance, ensuring accountability, equality and transparency, and avoiding opaque decisions that hinder justice.

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