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Germany: Follow through with human rights commitments and improve access to social rights

Commissioner for Human Rights 19 March 2024 Strasbourg

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, published today the report following her visit to Germany from 27 November to 1 December 2023, with recommendations regarding the available structures and legal frameworks to protect human rights, and on access to social rights, in...

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Hungary: Venice Commission assesses law on national sovereignty protection

Venice Commission 19 March 2024 Venice

In an opinion on Hungary’s Act LXXXVIII on the Protection of National Sovereignty, the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission has examined the main elements of the Act, particularly the prohibition of foreign funding in electoral campaigns and the establishment and activities of the Sovereignty...

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Congress to observe local elections in Türkiye

Congress 18 March 2024 Strasbourg

A twenty-member delegation from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe will carry out a mission from 29 March until 1 April to observe local elections in various regions of Türkiye to be held on 31 March 2024. The delegation will be accompanied by an expert and...

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Promoting measures for reducing drug supply and demand worldwide: Pompidou Group Italian Presidency

Pompidou Group 18 March 2024 Strasbourg

In an address to the 67th Session of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna (14-22 March 2024), the Italian Presidency of the Council of Europe’s drug policy cooperation platform stressed that for drug supply reduction, worldwide efforts must be aimed at the control of drug...

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Presidential 'election' in Russia: "Let's not recognise Putin’s legitimacy as president", PACE President says

Parliamentary Assembly 18 March 2024 strasbourg

Following the Presidential election in Russia, PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos today made the following statement: "Some minutes ago, the polling stations in the so-called ‘elections’ in the Russian Federation closed and the exit polls announced the projections. And there was little surprise...

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Venice Commission adopts opinion on the rule of law requirements of amnesties with particular reference to the amnesty bill in Spain

Venice Commission 15 March 2024 Venice

The European Commission for Democracy Through Law of the Council of Europe, better known as the Venice Commission, adopted today, during its 138th plenary meeting, an opinion on the rule of law requirements of amnesties, with particular reference to the parliamentary bill “on the organic law on...

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10 years of Crimea’s illegal annexation: Statement by the Congress President

Congress 15 March 2024 Strasbourg

The President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, Marc Cools, has made the following statement: “Ten years ago, on 16 March 2014, the illegal referendum in the Ukrainian region of Crimea, organised at Russian gunpoint, set off a spiral of violence leading...

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Artificial Intelligence, Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law Framework Convention

Secretary General 15 March 2024 Strasbourg

Statement by Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić on the occasion of the finalisation of the Convention

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Implementing ECHR judgments: Latest decisions from the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers

Committee of Ministers 15 March 2024 strasbourg

The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has published the case-by-case decisions taken during the Committee’s meeting from 12 to 14 March to supervise the implementation of judgments and decisions from the European Court of Human Rights. The Committee of Ministers adopted 40 decisions...

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Committee of Ministers condemns Russia for Alexey Navalnyy’s death, calls for independent international investigation

Committee of Ministers 15 March 2024 strasbourg

The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has strongly condemned the Russian authorities for the recent death of Alexey Navalnyy. At the Committee’s latest quarterly meeting on the implementation of judgments from the European Court of Human Rights, it called for an international commission...

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Venice Commission plenary under way

Venice Commission 15 March 2024 Venice

During its plenary session on Friday and Saturday, 15- 16 March in Venice, the Venice Commission is set to adopt six draft opinions concerning: Bosnia and Herzegovina on certain questions relating to the functioning of the Constitutional Court; Bulgaria on the Code of Ethical Conduct for Judges...

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Secretary General opens first Co-ordination Meeting on Combating Anti-Muslim Hatred and Discrimination

Secretary General 14 March 2024 Strasbourg

“There is no doubt that while many Muslim communities are well-integrated throughout Europe, contributing to civic life and being appreciated for it, there remain many instances of prejudice, discrimination and even violence targeted against Muslim people because of their faith. Following recent...

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Human rights of trans people: increased visibility and legal recognition contrast with lived experience of discrimination, violence

Commissioner for Human Rights 14 March 2024 strasbourg

“Realising the rights of trans people is a matter of applying human rights equally to everyone, and states have the primary responsibility to lift the barriers trans people are facing in exercising their human rights”, said the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović,...

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Grants to Armenian municipalities hosting refugees: Call for projects

Congress 14 March 2024 Strasbourg

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, in line with its commitment to support Karabakh Armenians and its “readiness to assist, using all statutory, cooperation and political tools at its disposal” (Declaration 7 (2023) has launched a grant scheme in support of municipalities hosting...

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Child human rights defenders want to be heard by their governments: Council of Europe study

Council of Europe 13 March 2024 Strasbourg

Child human rights defenders want governments to start listening to their opinions, ideas, and proposals in the development of laws and policies. This is one of the main findings of a new report: “Children as defenders of human rights: a study on Council of Europe member states” published today....

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Meeting UN Secretary General, PACE President urges more effective co-operation with the world body

Parliamentary Assembly 12 March 2024

PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos has urged more effective and properly institutionalised co-operation between the United Nations and the Council of Europe during a meeting yesterday in New York with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who is a former member of PACE. Such co-operation would...

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Lanzarote Convention: a tool to fight child sexual exploitation and sexual abuse worldwide

Council of Europe 12 March 2024

The Council of Europe and the Permanent Mission of Iceland to the United Nations in Geneva have hosted an event “Join states in a class of excellence to fight child sexual exploitation and sexual abuse” on the margins of the 55th Session of the UN Human Rights Council. The event aimed at...

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Liechtenstein should develop anti-discrimination legislation and better inform and support migrants

Council of Europe anti-racism commission (ECRI) 12 March 2024 strasbourg

In a report published on 12 March, the Council of Europe anti-racism commission (ECRI) calls on the Liechtenstein authorities to develop specific anti-discrimination legislation and establish an information and support centre for migrants (see also the German version of the report). ECRI notes a...

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Republic of Moldova: GRECO calls for improvements in preventing corruption in the central government and the police

Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) 12 March 2024 strasbourg

The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) has acknowledged the progress achieved by the Republic of Moldova in setting up an institutional and legal framework to promote integrity and prevent corruption in the top executive functions of the central government and its law...

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Implementing European Court of Human Rights judgments

Committee of Ministers 12 March 2024 strasbourg

The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers is holding its quarterly meeting to oversee the execution of judgments and decisions from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg from 12 to 14 March. Cases proposed for detailed examination concern Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia,...

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