Conflict in Georgia: Ministers’ Deputies continue discussions

On 11 September, the Ministers’ Deputies continued their discussions on the conflict in Georgia. They heard a number of statements from member states, as well as from the representatives of the Presidency of the European Union and of the OSCE. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Hammarberg, provided information about his recent visit to Georgia. The Chairman of the Committee of Ministers informed the Deputies on preparations for the informal ministerial meeting which has been convened by the Chairman-in-Office, Minister Carl Bildt, to take place in New York on 24 September 2008.

During the meeting, the Commissioner for Human Rights also presented his report on “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” as well as his 2nd quarterly activity report. He briefly commented on his visits to Armenia, France, Italy, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom.

The Swedish Chairmanship informed the meeting about the outcome of the Conference “Building a Europe for and with Children: towards a strategy for 2009-2011” held in Stockholm from 8-10 September 2008.
The Deputy Secretary General stated that the Conference had confirmed the underlying principle of the overall action of the Council of Europe on children, which is its human rights approach.

She also highlighted the current and future co-operation with other international institutions in this field and stressed the importance of governments’ ownership of the process. On the basis of the conclusions from the Conference, the thematic coordinator on children, Ambassador Irma Ertman, would now prepare the decisions concerning a future strategy to be taken by the Deputies later this autumn.