The European Social Charter

The European Social Charter is a Council of Europe treaty that guarantees fundamental social and economic rights as a counterpart to the European Convention on Human Rights, which refers to civil and political rights. It guarantees a broad range of everyday human rights related to employment, housing, health, education, social protection and welfare.
The Charter lays specific emphasis on the protection of vulnerable persons such as elderly people, children, people with disabilities and migrants. It requires that enjoyment of the abovementioned rights be guaranteed without discrimination.
No other legal instrument at pan-European level can provide such an extensive and complete protection of social rights as that provided by the Charter, which also serves as a point of reference in European Union law; most of the social rights in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights are based on the relevant articles of the Charter.
The Charter is therefore seen as the Social Constitution of Europe and represents an essential component of the continent’s human rights architecture.
The 7th edition of the Collected texts provides an updated account of all of the relevant instruments of the Charter, and the functioning of the various bodies which participate in the monitoring procedures.


The Committee of Ministers adopts changes to the European Social Charter system
On 27 September 2022, the Committee of Ministers adopted the operational decisions to reform the European Social Charter system (CM(2022)114). The reform covers the statutory reporting procedure as well as a new ad hoc reporting on critical or emerging issues. It also addresses certain procedural...

ECSR Conclusions 2021
Several problems relating to health and social protection still persist in Europe
The European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) today published its conclusions 2021 in respect of 33 States* on the articles of the Charter relating to the thematic group “Health, social security and social protection”. Germany and Iceland submitted their reports too late and therefore the...








Department of Social Rights
Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law
Council of Europe
1, quai Jacoutot
F – 67075 Strasbourg Cedex
Tél. +33 (0)3 90 21 55 23
www.coe.int/socialcharter
