Events

17 June, Strasbourg

Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland will meet with Alexander Vladimirovich Konovalov, Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation.

Contact: Daniel Höltgen, tel. +33 6 68 29 87 51

17 June, Yerevan

Deputy Secretary General Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni will participate in the launching of the Action Plan in Armenia.

Contact: Giuseppe Zaffuto, tel. + 33 3 90 21 56 04

17-19 June, Portugal

A delegation from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe will carry out a monitoring visit to Portugal to assess the implementation of the provisions of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, which was ratified by Portugal in 1990. The co-rapporteurs on local and regional democracy in Portugal will consider how local and regional self-government has evolved in the country since the adoption of the Congress’ last recommendation in 2012 and the signature of a post-monitoring roadmap in 2015. Meetings are planned in Lisbon, Sintra and Alcácer Do Sal.

More information

17-22 June, European Youth Centre, Strasbourg

“Mind the gap” study session organised by the Youth Department of the Council of Europe in co-operation with the European Network on Independent Living (ENIL) and with Euro-Youth Mental Health will focus on supporting young disabled people’s right to live independently and to be included in the community through exploring mental health as a disability issue. The participants will learn about creating inclusive societies, promoting well-being of young people with disability, building confidence and becoming leaders. Youth workers and experts from some 20 European states will take part in the event.

Contact: Tatiana Baeva, +33 3 88 41 21 41

18 June, Strasbourg

The European Court of Human Rights will notify in writing 16 judgments concerning the Republic of Moldova, Russia, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine.

More information - ECHR website, tel. +33 3 90 21 42 08

18-19 June, Budapest

Between the 18-19 June representatives of youth centres awarded with the Council of Europe Quality Label for youth centres, as well as youth centres aspiring to its acquisition, will gather in the European Youth Centre Budapest for their annual European Platform meeting, which is also celebrating its 10th anniversary. The meeting will bring together 21 youth centres from 15 member states of the Council of Europe.

The Platform meeting is designed to create a space for directors and key staff of youth centres to focus on strategic issues in the management of youth centres. This year’s programme will focus on quality, quality management and reporting in youth centres which will result in a publication providing a European framework for quality management and reporting of youth centres.

Participants will be also informed about the relevant youth policy changes on the European level, will have the opportunity to exchange experiences and practices among centres and to develop joint approaches to promote quality youth centres and youth work.

More information about the quality label can be found here.

18-19 June, Strasbourg

The Intercultural Cities programme (ICC) will hold a thematic seminar on “Fighting discrimination and hate speech: is interculturalism the solution?”

Organised in co-operation with the City of Turin (Italy), the seminar will explore the nexus between interculturalism, anti-discrimination and anti-hate speech tools, to encourage more inter-departmental work and cooperation at local, regional-national and international levels in this field. The final aim is to reinforce traditional or existing legal and administrative anti-discrimination instruments by combining them with intercultural cities’ proactive processes of education and exchange that lead to attitudinal and behavioural change.

The seminar is open to the press - More information

Contacts: Giuseppe Zaffuto, tel. + 33 3 90 21 56 04; Tatiana Baeva, tel. + 33 3 88 41 21 41

18-20 June, Odessa (Ukraine)

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities will organise jointly with the Association of Ukrainian Cities (AUC) and international partners from the United States and Canada, the 15th Ukrainian Municipal Forum. It will bring together more than 400 mayors, members of the AUC, to share their knowledge and experiences in building inclusive, open and transparent societies. On 19 June, the peer exchanges, organised around three thematic round tables with expert input, will focus on topical issues related to public ethics and open government, with a particular focus on gender mainstreaming in local self-government in Ukraine. Congress Secretary General Andreas Kiefer will address the opening session on 18 June and will hold several high-level meetings with the Ukrainian authorities.

More information

19 June, Novi Sad (Serbia)

The EU-Council of Europe youth partnership wishes to contribute to strengthening the dialogue among different actors involved in youth research in South-East Europe (SEE) through a regional youth knowledge forum. Its aims are to take stock of the reality of youth policy and youth work practice in SEE and to reflect on how youth research can have a supportive role for the actors involved in the region; to understating the reality of youth research; and to fostering effective communication by looking at recent developments in communicating youth research, and notably at Knowledge Translation (KT) techniques.

For more information - Contact: Tatiana Baeva, tel. + 33 3 88 41 21 41

19-20 June, The Hague (the Netherlands)

A Council of Europe delegation will participate in the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG), which brings together every year representatives of governments, international organisations, business, civil society, academia and the technical community to exchange views about the Internet and how it is governed. Topics on the agenda include the challenges posed by artificial intelligence, cybercrime, threats to freedom of expression and data protection.

Jan Kleijssen, Director of Information Society and Action against Crime will lead Council of Europe’s delegation, co-moderate a plenary session on emerging technologies and human rights and participate in the plenary session Tackling online harms – a regulation minefield? Present and future. The delegation will also participate in the workshops GPDR implementation: Blind spots, opportunities and the way forward, Fending off trolls – Journalists in defence of democracy and Criminal justice in cyberspace: more of everything? On the eve of the EuroDIG the Council of Europe will organise a special event on artificial intelligence as a risk to enhance discrimination.

The EuroDIG will be webcasted live on www.eurodig.org

Programme - Contact: Jaime Rodriguez, tel. +33 3 90 21 47 04

20 June, Tunis

Deputy Secretary General Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni will participate in the launching of the Joint Programme European Union/Council of Europe “Appui aux instances indépendantes en Tunisie (PAII-TAC)” and “Improving the functioning, performance and access to justice in Tunisia (AP-JUST)”.

Contact: Giuseppe Zaffuto, tel. + 33 3 90 21 56 04

20 June, Strasbourg

The European Court of Human Rights will notify in writing 28 judgments and/or decisions concerning Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine.

More information - ECHR website, tel. +33 3 90 21 42 08

21 June, Bern (Switzerland)

Educational experts and journalists will explain the training being offered to children and young people in Switzerland on how to handle the new media environment at a joint meeting of two Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) sub-committees, those on Culture, Diversity and Heritage and on Media and the Information Society. PACE President Liliane Maury Pasquier will make an opening statement at the meeting. Participants will also visit Bern’s Museum of Communication, the winner of this year’s Council of Europe Museum Prize.

Agenda

21-23 June, Tbilisi

The Tbilisi Open Air, an annual international music festival, will be sponsored by the Council of Europe “I choose equality” campaign. This movement aims to raise awareness about human rights and anti-discrimination policy and their importance for securing democracy, peace and prosperity in Georgian society. It is part of the “Fight against discrimination, hate crime and hate speech in Georgia” project.

There will be an “equality city” campsite zone, a promotional stand and campaign events throughout the festival.

Contact: Tatiana Baeva, tel. + 33 3 88 41 21 41

23 June, Istanbul

Following the decision taken on 6 May by the Turkish Supreme Election Council to cancel the 31 March election of the Mayor of Istanbul and at the invitation of the Turkish authorities, a delegation from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities will observe the re-run of the mayoral election on 23 June. The preliminary conclusions will be presented by the Head of the delegation at a press conference in Istanbul on 24 June.

More information