On 23 September, the final event of DATA EQUALITY took place in Athens. It brought together the project consortium, of which the Euro-Arab Foundation has been a member, along with representatives of the judiciary, law enforcement, public administrations, academia and civil society. They met to discuss how data-driven and artificial intelligence tools can be used while protecting fundamental rights and equality. The Foundation was represented by researcher Paula Cano.
The event opened with institutional greetings from Beatrice Sperotto, representing the Court of Appeal of Venice, and continued with a session on data equality, fundamental rights and European challenges. The discussions addressed fair trial and equality of arms in data-based proceedings, procedural risks in data collection and analysis (including the Europol case), and data fragmentation as a possible source of discrimination in the context of the EU Framework Decisions on judicial cooperation. The second session presented the project’s main results, including lessons learned from the cascade training activities and an Implicit Association Test (IAT) exercise led by KMOP and Headway, focused on identifying and addressing bias.
The third session focused on practical applications, with contributions from specialists on the legal management of AI-based tools in investigations. It also presented the EU-funded project EXIS, “Empowering police officers to combat discrimination and respond effectively to crimes against LGBTIQ+ people”, which illustrates complementary approaches to tackling discrimination in policing.
The final session was devoted to the future of judicial cooperation in the era of big data and electronic evidence (e-evidence). Experts discussed how to identify and correct algorithmic errors in judicial contexts, including the role of large and small language models. The event closed with a Q&A and concluding remarks on how the project’s results and tools can contribute to future actions in favour of data equality and non-discrimination.
DATA EQUALITY (Digital Data to Identify, Prevent and Combat Intersectional Discrimination in AI-Based “Phygital” Environments) is a project funded by the European Commission under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) Programme. It began in September 2024, and its aim has been to analyse how data and AI-based tools can both reveal and reproduce discrimination, while supporting professionals in identifying and addressing these risks.
The Euro-Arab Foundation was responsible for assessing, at European level and in the four consortium countries, current methodologies for collecting, managing, analysing and sharing data on discrimination, as well as mechanisms to avoid bias in AI and OSINT tools. To do so, it conducted multiple semi-structured online interviews with law enforcement and civil society professionals, half of them from southern Europe.
