Neurotechnologies

Applications in the field of neurotechnology raise issues of privacy, personhood, and discrimination. It therefore needs to be assessed whether these issues can be sufficiently addressed by the existing human rights framework or whether new human rights pertaining to cognitive liberty, mental privacy, and mental integrity and psychological continuity, need to be entertained in order to govern neurotechnologies. 

To this end, the roundtable jointly organized by the Council of Europe and the OECD brought together international experts from academia, industry and policy to discuss human rights issues raised by the applications of neurotechnologies.

Based on these discussions, the rapporteurs of the roundtable have published a report that captures the main findings, positions, conclusions, and recommendations of the roundtable.

They proposed namely:

  • to facilitate an inclusive societal deliberation on how such technologies should be deployed and regulated;
  • to develop an Interpretative Guide to Adapting Existing Human Rights to neurotechnologies to guarantee that the protection of human rights is a guiding consideration throughout the entire process of research, development, and application.
     

Read the report >>

What prompted the organisation of this round table and what were its objectves?

What are the key human rights challenges raised by the application of neurotechnologies?

What were the main conclusions drawn in respect of how best to govern/regulate neurotechnologies?

What actions have been identified to contribute to responsible developments/innovation in neurotechnology?