Belgium and the Council of Europe – bringing human rights from the conference table to your kitchen table

The Council of Europe works for you. We want to give visibility to the role, standards and work of the Council of Europe in its member states, to show how Council of Europe membership has helped achieve particular results or changes. Our aim, through a variety of events and actions, is to highlight ways in which the Council of Europe’s action has helped improve the life of individuals and contributed to improving people’s enjoyment of fundamental rights.

Jean-Cédric JANSSENS de BISTHOVEN, Ambassadeur, Représentant permanent de la Belgique auprès du Conseil de l’Europe

Whether it is the impact of the European Convention on Human Rights at national level, or the Council of Europe's work in many fields, such as working to abolish the death penalty or to ensure freedom of expression and freedom of the media, or to adress online and technology-facilitated violence against women through the Istanbul Convention and Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, the Council of Europe has achieved a lot since 1949. View achievements »

Events

7 May 2026

• The President of the Congress, Gunn Marit Helgesen, will participate in a round table organized as part of the event “The Call of Dunkirk – European Cities Actively Defend European Citizens and Its Founding Values,” which will be held at the European Committee of the Regions in Brussels. This event, organised by the international network “Cities of Remembrance,” will bring together representatives of European institutions as well as local and regional leaders to discuss the role of cities in safeguarding European unity and democratic values.

27 March 2026

• The Council of Europe’s Children’s Rights Division and the EU Commission’s Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers will launch a new guide to help countries measure how child-friendly their justice systems are. The Child-friendly Justice Assessment Tool was developed as part of a joint project to help put into practice Council of Europe guidelines on child-friendly justice. Representatives of Belgium, Poland, Slovenia, Greece, Hungary and Portugal as well as several international organisations and NGOs will take part in the launch event, which will be open to the media and webcast live. (Brussels, Comet Louise, 20 Place Stéphanie and online). Programme

December 2023

• Exhibition on fake images (antisemitism)

5 May 2023

• Lancement de campagne pour le Conseil de l’Europe sur Twitter, sur Facebook, sur LinkedIn et sur Instagram avec une vidéo de Ministre et une autre vidéo « explainer » sur le Conseil de l’Europe. La campagne de visibilité est lancée par SPF Affaires étrangères, Commerce extérieur et Coopération au Développement.

8 March 2023

• Evènement sur la participation des femmes en politique

January 2023

• Conseil des droits de l’Homme

Tbc

• Communication around selected topics, such as Venice Commission, Lanzarote Convention, Istanbul Convention
• Events with PACE/Congress at local level
• Collaboration on events with CoE office in Brussels