The Charter's Treaty System

The treaty system of the European Social Charter is an integrated set of international standards concerning social rights and a mechanism for monitoring their implementation within the States concerned.

Taking into account the evolution which has occurred in Europe since the adoption of the European Social Charter in 1961, the Revised European Social Charter, adopted in 1996, embodies in a single instrument all the rights guaranteed by the 1961 Charter and its Additional Protocol of 1988, while up-dating some of them and adding several completely new rights.

The Revised Charter is gradually replacing the initial 1961 treaty.

Enforcement of the Revised Charter within the States parties is submitted to the same monitoring mechanism as the 1961 Charter, i.e. the reporting system; this system was developed and strengthened in 1991 by an Amending Protocol (the 'Turin Protocol'). For the States parties which have accepted it, the reporting system is complemented by the collective complaints procedure, based on the relevant Additional Protocol of 1995.

Today, the Charter treaty system is one of the most widely accepted human rights set of standards within the Council of Europe. The widespread support for social rights is assured by the fact that 42 out of the 46 member States of the Council of Europe are Parties to either the 1961 Charter or the Revised Charter. For more information see the website of the Treaty Office of the Council of Europe, the table on signature and ratifications, the table of accepted provisions or the interactive map below.

The information displayed on this map is not necessarily complete, exhaustive, accurate or up to date. For any official information concerning the treaties of the European Social Charter, the status of signatures and ratifications, the declarations and reservations made by States, please consult the website of the Treaty Office of the Council of Europe.

The European Social Charter
a guardian of our social rights

Indietro States Parties to the European Social Charter are invited to report on the rights of children, families and migrants by 31 December 2022

States Parties to the European Social Charter are invited to report on the rights of children, families and migrants by 31 December 2022

The European Committee of Social Rights transmitted, in the framework of the reporting procedure, the questions to States Parties of the Revised European Social Charter and the 1961 Charter relating to the provisions belonging to the thematic group 4 “children, families and migrants”. The following provisions are concerned:

the right of children and young persons to protection (Article 7);
the right of employed women to protection of maternity (Article 8);
the right of the family to social, legal and economic protection (Article 16);
the right of children and young persons to social, legal and economic protection (Article 17);
the right of migrant workers and their families to protection and assistance (Article 19);
the right of workers with family responsibilities to equal opportunity and treatment (Article 27)
the right to housing (Article 31).

States having accepted the collective complaints procedure from Group A are invited to submit a simplified report on the follow-up given in collective complaints where the ECSR has found a violation. These states are France, Greece, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, Ireland, Finland.

The European Committee of Social Rights, wishing to focus its monitoring and to alleviate the reporting burden of States, invites States Parties to limit the report to replies to specific and targeted questions for each of the above-mentioned articles of the Charter, without prejudice to responding to issues still pending from previous reporting cycles.

States parties are invited to submit their national reports by 31 December 2022. Consequently, third party organisations such as trade unions, employers’ organisations, NGOs, national human rights institutions and national equality bodies can submit additional information to the European Committee of Social Rights by 30 June 2023.