European Committee of Social Rights

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What is the Committee of Social Rights

The European Committee of Social Rights is the monitoring body of the European Social Charter. It is composed of 15 independent, impartial members which are elected by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers for a period of six years, renewable once.

What is the role of the Committee of Social Rights

The European Committee of Social Rights rules on the conformity of the situation in States with the Charter under two complementary mechanisms: through collective complaints lodged by the social partners and governmental organisations (collective complaints procedure), and through national reports drawn up by the States Parties (reporting procedure).

States Parties have an obligation to cooperate with the Committee and its jurisprudence (both “decisions” in complaints and “conclusions” on the basis of national reports). This obligation arises from the application of the principle of good faith to the observance of all treaty obligations. For States Parties to ignore or not take into account the Committee’s decisions and conclusions would be to fail to show good faith in implementing their Charter-based obligations.

Members

Rules

Sessions

Monitoring procedures

Decisions and conclusions

Activity Reports

A word from the President of ECSR

events

Back Taking Stock of the European Social Charter at 60

The University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre, together with the  Roma Tre Centro Internazionale di Ricerca ‘Diritto e Globalizzazione’ and with the support of the European Social Charter Department of the Council of Europe, invite you to the 1st event, organised in the framework of the 60th anniversary of the 1961 European Social Charter. Featuring expert speakers, this workshop focused on ‘taking stock’ of the Charter and the work of its supervisory body – the European Committee of Social Rights – so far.  The event took place online on 28 April, 10:00-13:30 GMT. The working language was English.

The European Social Charter system is the oldest and most wide-ranging instrument providing for social rights in Europe. From the gender pay gap to the rights of migrants and unaccompanied children, from older persons’ rights to right to strike, the Charter has proved a living instrument capable of engaging with the challenges faced by Europeans in the 60 years since its adoption. Despite this, the system remains frequently neglected and misunderstood both by social rights and human rights law actors. This event will both celebrate and critique the European Social Charter system in light of the legal, social and political factors that have shaped it since 1961.  

Speakers addressed:

Key thematic areas in terms of the European Social Charter, including older person’s rights, children’s rights, the right to health, and equality and non-discrimination
The European Social Charter’s contribution to a European model of social rights
Key institutional developments throughout the history of the system and the reasons for those developments

Rrogramme