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Peter Svetina at ENNHRI Anniversary Conference
Human Rights Ombudsman Peter Svetina participated in the General Assembly and Conference of the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI) in Brussels. This year, ENNHRI, of which the Slovenian institution of the Human Rights Ombudsman has been a long-time member, celebrates the 10th anniversary of operation. The celebration was attended by more than 200 representatives of national institutions for human rights and other organisations or institutions, including the European Commission, Council of Europe, OECD, OSCE, and UN, while the participants were addressed by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović. The red thread of the conference was the vision for the next 10 years and in the forefront of talks was the issue of how to inspire and encourage countries to more persistently strive and fight for human rights and for a just, tolerant, and safe society.
Invited by the organiser, Ombudsman Svetina participated at the conference as a speaker at a roundtable discussion about challenges in the field of human rights, primarily in the fields of digitalisation, artificial intelligence, and climate change. He emphasised the importance of an open dialogue and said that there will be no efficient solutions without concerted efforts. He also shed light on the role of the institution of Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia as the national institution for human rights and its work in the mentioned fields.
Ombudsman Svetina highlighted the significance of ENNHRI’s operation and its efforts for the promotion of human rights in the field of artificial intelligence on the European level. He added that this organisation has made an important step in this field by adopting a common position – the EU Act on Artificial Intelligence. Svetina estimated the collaboration between the ENNHRI and the Slovenian Human Rights Ombudsman as excellent and announced that at the end of November they will host an expert event together in Ljubljana intended for the strengthening of knowledge in the field of artificial intelligence.
“The Human Rights Ombudsman has not encountered any concrete examples of abuse of artificial intelligence on the national level, yet we stay cautious since with numerous benefits of artificial intelligence in this field, there also exist a plethora of potential dangers for human rights,” said Svetina. He especially stressed that the institution of the Ombudsman supports the efforts of the Council of Europe for arrangement of the development and use of artificial intelligence based on the standards of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.
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Source: The Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia
