Council of Europe

Human Rights
Development

  Human Rights
Development (DH-DEV)

  Fighting Impunity

  Environment

  Elderly people

Accession

  Presentation

 Meetings reports of the CDDH-UE

  CDDH-UE documents

  Other relevant documents

External relations

Other Topics

  Death Penalty

  Armed forces,
Conscientious objection

  LGBT

  Article 52

  Human Rights in multi-
cultural societies

Developing human rights law and policy at the European level is essential in order to ensure full and effective protection of human rights and the prevention of violations in our  constantly evolving societies.  The Council of Europe has a pioneering and unique role in this field, and a competitive advantage compared to other international organisations which allows to achieve particularly ambitious and ground-breaking results on a pan-European scale.

This is demonstrated by all Conventions, Recommendations, Guidelines and Declarations adopted – even recently - in the human rights field, and by the constant mainstreaming of the human rights dimension in all relevant Council of Europe standards.

The Human Rights Law and Policy Division is responsible for the secretariat of a number of intergovernmental committees in charge of the preparation of binding and non-binding legal instruments such as Conventions and Recommendations in the field of human rights law established under the authority of the CDDH. This includes the Committee of Experts on the Development of Human Rights (DH-DEV), the Committee of Experts on Impunity (DH-I)and the Informal Working Group on the Accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights (CDDH-UE).

The Division is also in charge of processing the Secretary General’s inquiries under Article 52 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the policy of the Organisation for the abolition of the Death Penalty in Europe and worldwide. Moreover, the Division is responsible for the cooperation on human rights issues between the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law and the European Union including the EU Fundamental Rights Agency  (FRA), the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations.