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Council of Europe AI Treaty (Framework Convention on AI, Human Rights, Democracy, Rule of Law) — Compliance Obligations and August 2026 Ratification Status

The Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence (CETS 225) is the first binding international treaty on AI. It creates obligations for all 46 CoE member states plus any acceding non-member states (including potentially the US, Canada, Japan, and others that participated in drafting). By August 2026 the treaty has crossed the 5-ratification threshold and is in force. The core obligations that matter for organisations deploying AI: (1) Human-rights due diligence — parties must conduct and document risk and impact assessments covering the full AI lifecycle, from design through decommissioning, with specific attention to discrimination, privacy, and access to remedy (Articles 4-8). (2) Transparency and oversight — deployers must provide adequate transparency about AI systems and ensure human oversight mechanisms exist, including for systems deployed by private actors (Articles 9-10). (3) Procedural safeguards — individuals affected by AI decisions must have access to meaningful remedy, including notification that they are interacting with an AI system and the right to challenge decisions (Articles 11-14). (4) Regulatory sandbox and innovation — parties must establish controlled environments for testing AI systems before deployment, aligned with the monitored-containment posture the Council of AI advocates (Article 15). (5) Cross-border cooperation — the treaty establishes a Conference of the Parties (COP) and mandates information-sharing on serious AI incidents, making the Council of AI Containment Incident Index a natural compliance tool for signatories needing auditable incident records. How this connects to verified measurement: the treaty requires documented risk assessments and incident reporting — a signed verified measurement credential over the containment record provides exactly the auditable, tamper-evident trail that Article 12 (documentation and record-keeping) demands. Organisations operating in CoE member states should map their AI governance framework to CETS 225 now, ahead of domestic implementing legislation.

Measurement, not certification. Verify a card at /gspc-verify.