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

26–27 May 2026

  • After hosting the 2025 edition, the Council of Europe will contribute to the 2026 European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG), an open multi-stakeholder platform for exchanging views on the Internet and its governance. Organised by EURid and supported by the European Commission, the event will be dedicated to “European Voices for the Future of the Internet – Celebrating 20 Years of .eu, and the Beginning of a New Era of Internet Governance.” As part of the New Democratic Pact for Europe, the Council of Europe will take part in a debate on the intersection of technology and democracy and will share its expertise on cross-cutting issues of digital governance; these range from AI to the protection of personal data, media and the information society, cybercrime, the fight against online discrimination and gender-based violence, the digitalisation of justice and digital training for legal professionals, Internet governance, and the role of young people.

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

December 2023

  • Exhibition on fake images (antisemitism)

5 May 2023

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

 Telling the story