The Week Ahead: Key Events and Meetings

The Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) will publish its annual report for 2023. Based on the CPT’s findings during visits to member states, the report examines the treatment of transgender persons, and issues recommendations to prisons administrations to ensure that they are treated with respect and to prevent any ill-treatment. The report also contains an overview of the CPT’s work to prevent torture and ill-treatment in places where persons are deprived of liberty across Europe over the last year.

The President of the CPT, Dr Alan Mitchell, and its Executive Secretary, Hugh Chetwynd, will present the report at a hybrid press conference at the Council of Europe office in Brussels from 10 a.m.

Contacts: (Strasbourg) Jaime Rodriguez, tel. +33 6 89 99 50 42; (Brussels) Andrew Cutting, tel. +32 485 21 72 02

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), in co-operation with the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights and the Defender of Rights, will organise a round table to discuss the follow-up given or to be given to the recommendations contained in its report on France published in 2022.

The roundtable will be structured around three sessions: “Presentation of ECRI’s report on France”; “Travellers: how to ensure their effective equality”; and “Prevention of any abusive practice by law enforcement against people from diverse backgrounds”.

Contact: Estelle Steiner, tel. +33 3 88 41 33 35

22-25 April, North Macedonia

A 14-member delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), led by Alfred Heer, will travel to the country to observe the conduct of the presidential election on 24 April, alongside observers from the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

A joint press conference is scheduled on Thursday 25 April in Skopje (place and time to be confirmed).

More information – Contact : PACE Communication Division, tel. +33 3 88 41 31 93

23 April, Strasbourg

The European Court of Human Rights will notify in writing seven judgments concerning Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania and Türkiye.

More information – ECHR Website, tel. +33 3 90 21 42 08

23 April, Strasbourg

Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić will participate in the official opening ceremony of “Strasbourg – UNESCO World Book Capital 2024”.

Contact: Giuseppe Zaffuto, tel. +33 6 86 32 10 24

24-25 April, Vienna

Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić will participate in the OSCE Permanent Council and will hold bilateral meetings with OSCE Chairpersonship and Secretariat.

Contact: Giuseppe Zaffuto, tel. +33 6 86 32 10 24

25 April, Vienna

Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić will participate in a meeting at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA).

Contact: Giuseppe Zaffuto, tel. +33 6 86 32 10 24

25 April, Strasbourg

The European Court of Human Rights will notify in writing 67 judgments and/or decisions concerning Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Türkiye and Ukraine.

More information – ECHR Website, tel. +33 3 90 21 42 08

26 April, Strasbourg

The Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) will publish the report of its October 2023 periodic visit to Ukraine. This was the first visit to Ukraine by the CPT since the beginning of the full-scale military aggression by the Russian Federation in February 2022.

CPT and Ukraine - Contact: Jaime Rodriguez, tel. +33 6 89 99 50 42

26 April, Chișinău

The Council of Europe and UN Women Moldova, in cooperation with the Central Electoral Commission of the Republic of Moldova, will organise a roundtable to discuss strategies to combat sexism, hate speech and gender-based violence and to present the results of a project to monitor hate and sexist speech in the media during the 2023 general local elections. A discussion of the steps to combat hate speech ahead of the 2024 Presidential election is also on the agenda.

Contact: Jaime Rodriguez, tel. +33 6 89 99 50 42

All times are CET unless indicated otherwise.