Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law (CETS 225)
Council of Europe · 2024-05-17 (adopted); 2024-09-05 (opened for signature)
The first legally binding international treaty on AI, focused on human rights and democracy. The EU ratified it in 2026; the US signed but has not ratified, and the treaty mostly lets each country decide how to apply it to private companies.
What it calls for
- Human oversight
- Fairness non discrimination
- Privacy
- Transparency
- Liability
- International governance
Scope
First binding international AI treaty; signatories include the EU, UK, US, Canada, Japan, Israel, Switzerland, Norway, Ukraine and others (approx. 19-20 parties/signatories listed)
What actually happened
The EU deposited its ratification on 2026-05-15, with effects for the EU from 2026-09-01 (https://www.coe.int/en/web/artificial-intelligence/-/european-union-ratifies-the-council-of-europe-framework-convention-on-artificial-intelligence; https://www.nicfab.eu/en/posts/cets225-ratifica-ue/). The US signed under Biden (Sept 2024) but has not ratified, and the Trump administration has rejected 'global governance of AI' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_call_for_AI_red_lines). Looked for: the full ratification tally on the CoE treaty office page - the CoE page fetched lists parties but the count of ratifications beyond the EU could not be confirmed; treat number of ratifying states as unknown.