The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) is the Council of Europe’s monitoring body, combating racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance in greater Europe, from the perspective of the protection of human rights. It is composed of independent members and carries out regular country monitoring. The resulting country reports are published following a confidential dialogue with the national authorities.

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The Charter is the only treaty worldwide for the promotion of traditionally used regional or minority languages. A minority language will only survive if it is used everywhere and not just at home. Therefore, the Charter obliges states to actively promote the use of these languages in all domains of public life: education, courts, administration, media, culture, economic and social life, and transfrontier co-operation. The Council of Europe monitors that the Charter is applied in practice.

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The Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities has been in force since February 1998 and has 39 member States. It is the only legally binding instrument world-wide aiming at the protection of the specific rights of persons belonging to national minorities in key areas, including equality and non-discrimination provisions, media, language and education rights, as well as access to effective participation in public life.

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The Convention provides for the setting up of an effective and independent monitoring mechanism capable of controlling the implementation of the obligations contained in the Convention. The independent monitoring mechanism of the Convention is seen as one of its main strengths. Experience proves that, in areas where independent human rights monitoring mechanisms exist, as is the case in the fields of torture and minorities for example, they have high credibility.

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The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence is based on the understanding that violence against women is a form of gender-based violence that is committed against women because they are women. GREVIO is the independent expert body responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) by the Parties.

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The main mission of the Monitoring Group of the anti-doping Convention is to make sure the treaty is respected by the States parties. To this end, it produces reports on the implementation of the Anti-Doping Convention and organises consultative and evaluation visits. It can also go into some provisions in more depth by drawing up recommendations.

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The main mission of the Standing Committee (body in charge of monitoring the application of the European Convention on Spectator Violence and Misbehaviour at Sports Events) is to make sure the States parties respect the treaty. At major international tournaments – World Cup, European Championships – an ad hoc working group is set up within the Standing Committee to evaluate the security provisions and, after the event in question, to evaluate the lessons learnt from them.

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