“The Council of Europe as a pioneer of human rights protection: the new generation of rights” Interactive panel discussion moderated by Ms Rósa Björk Brynjólfsdóttir, Office of the Prime Minister of Iceland and former Chairperson of the Icelandic delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly, with the participation of: o Ms Katrín JAKOBSDÓTTIR, Prime Minister of Iceland o Mr Tiny KOX, President of the Assembly o Ms Ilze BRANDS KEHRIS, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights o Ms Nathalie SMUHA, Researcher and Assistant Lecturer, Institute for European Law, KU Leuven, expert

on Artificial Intelligence o Ms Tinna HALLGRÍMSDÓTTIR, Youth representative in the Icelandic Climate Council Ms Rósa Björk BRYNJÓLFSDÓTTIR, Office of the Prime Minister of Iceland and former Chairperson of the Icelandic delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly, introduced the second panel and hoped the room was full of energy for the continuation of their discussion, which she said was happening because of the extraordinary meeting of the Standing Committee and the Reykjavík Summit starting the following day. She introduced the next panel, on the new generation of rights, and its current and future challenges. She introduced the panellists: Ms Katrín JAKOBSDÓTTIR, Prime Minister of Iceland; Mr Tiny KOX, President of the Assembly; Ms Ilze BRANDS KEHRIS, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights; Ms Nathalie SMUHA, Researcher and Assistant Lecturer, Institute for European Law, KU Leuven, and expert on Artificial Intelligence; and Ms Tinna HALLGRIMSDÓTTIR, youth representative in the Icelandic Climate Council, and who she said had been a very efficient advocate for the environmental issue and the climate crisis. The new generation of rights meant being faced with the climate crisis, artificial intelligence, democratic backsliding, the right of marginalised people, and gender equality, which she said was not a new generation of rights but an ongoing battle. Still, they were often thinking about these concrete human rights and new realities. She asked Ms Katrín JAKOBSDÓTTIR what came to mind with the words “the new generation of rights”; she asked if they were already enshrined in new legal instruments. Ms Katrín JAKOBSDÓTTIR, Prime Minister of Iceland, gave thanks for being invited to a panel on an urgent topic. She said she was thrilled that the Standing Committee was in Reykjavík. She said that the new generation of rights was a big topic, but put simply, the new generational challenges meant thinking of rights differently than before. There was a UN recommendation on this. There was a proposal from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which had been very active on the right to a healthy sustainable environment; and she had proposed this to the Icelandic Parliament in a constitutional amendment which was not passed. She said she would try again. A lot was happening in all countries concerning this right to a sustainable environment. With generational challenges such as Artificial Intelligence, the Icelandic Prime Minister said there was exponential growth in new technologies. The designers of those technologies and frameworks were ever more pointing to ethical standards, leaving the ship with warnings. They needed to look at the regulatory framework. There was, thus, a need to think about the effects of AI on human rights and on democracy. When Ms JAKOBSDÓTTIR was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly in 2017, she said the Council of Europe had done very good work on ethical standards. She gave the example of maybe one day moving into a care home and wondering if she would be meeting a human there or simply a machine. These were questions which needed asking and answering, with new norms and standards in dealing with these. In the spirit of having a discussion on the panel, and not just a monologue, Ms JAKOBSDÓTTIR mentioned that their notion of democracy was an inclusive one, very closely related to the Social Charter: no one should be left behind, and the vulnerable groups had to be considered. This notion of democracy had to be connected to equality. One of the challenges they were facing, Ms JAKOBSDÓTTIR said, was traditional inequality, but also inequality directly related to the climate crisis. She said that the exponential growth of new technologies also created new inequalities. She said she was not an expert on artificial intelligence, but knew that was based on data, which had an inbuilt bias. For example, there were more data on men than women, and about some nations than others, and this could create new inequalities. These were the three generational challenges which she said called for a rethinking of rights.

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