Council of Europe

• 2026-10-10:A Treaty Office chart checkconfirmed that CETS 225 is not in force, with 21 signatories and one ratification; there was no deposit in the 2026-10-07 to 2026-10-10 window.
• 2026-10-06:The Council of Europe and Microsoft signed a framework cooperation memorandumin Strasbourg to promote human rights in the age of AI. It is non-binding and concerns dialogue and knowledge-sharing.
• 2026-09-07:A second-anniversary conference at ETH Zurich discussed Switzerland's path to ratification. A consultation draft was reportedly due by end-2026 but had not opened as of 2026-09-08 (secondary source, unverified).

What to watch:further ratifications, in particular by Council of Europe member states, since four more are needed (three of them member states).

The central instrument is the Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and human rights, democracy and the rule of law (CETS 225), the first international treaty on AI. Related instruments are non-binding:

• CETS 225.The EU ratified on 2026-05-15 as the first Party. Recent signatories include Bosnia and Herzegovina (2025-12-09), Armenia (2026-01-27), North Macedonia (2026-05-08) and Albania (2026-06-15).
• HUDERIA COBRA resources.The Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAI) adopted these non-binding human-rights impact-assessment resources at its final plenary in November 2025.
• Committee of Ministers recommendation on AI literacy(adopted in Monaco, 2026-09-04; non-binding). The number CM/Rec(2026)12 comes from a blog and needs confirmation.
• PACE resolution on AI and democracy(June 2026). The resolution number needs confirmation.
• CoE–Microsoft framework cooperation memorandum(signed 2026-10-06; non-binding).

The Convention is a framework treaty. Once in force it will bind Parties to adopt measures ensuring that AI activities respect human rights, democracy and the rule of law. It does not create direct obligations for private companies; any such obligations arise from national implementation.

There are no binding obligations today, because the treaty is not in force. For organisations, the Convention is mainly a signal of the direction of travel and of the baseline that Parties, including the EU, are expected to implement. The HUDERIA resources are voluntary tools for human-rights impact assessment.

Caveats.A lane projection that the treaty could not enter into force “before 2027” is not supported and has been omitted. The text of the Microsoft memorandum was not read, so no binding horizontal AI obligations are claimed. Research assistance, not legal advice.