• Council of Europe’s statutory decision-making body;
• Supervision of execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, in accordance with Article 46 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms as amended by Protocol No. 11.

 Committee of Ministers website

 Committee of Ministers contact webpage

• Observation of parliamentary and presidential elections and national referenda;
• Reports on election observations and on issues related to elections;
• Normative work by the PACE committees on various issues identified in election observation reports (e.g. minimum standards for electoral systems, improving women’s political participation, diaspora voting, media and election campaigns; social media and elections, transparency of foreign donations to political parties and election campaigns, democratic governance of artificial intelligence, etc.);
• Follow-up by the PACE Monitoring Committee to the problems identified in election observation reports;
• Conferences and seminars on elections related issues/themes, in close co-operation with the Venice Commission;
• Co-operation with other international organisations observing elections (OSCE/ODIHR, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, European Parliament, NATO Parliamentary Assembly).

Elections and Democracy: The Role of the Council of Europe - Portal

• Provides electoral and technical cooperation to election administrations and electoral stakeholders:
• Follow-up to PACE, Congress, Venice Commission as well as OSCE/ODIHR recommendations;
• Professionalisation (and depoliticization) and capacity building of election administration at all levels;
• Monitoring and transparency of political parties and campaign financing;
• Improving balanced and unbiased media coverage;
• Ensuring gender balance and political empowerment of women;
• Preventing and countering misuse of administrative resources, electoral corruption, mis/disinformation and hate speech;
• Supporting secured digitalisation of electoral process;
• Supporting inclusive electoral process in particular with national minorities, young and first-time voters, persons with disabilities;
• Improving voter education and awareness raising of voters and in particular vulnerable groups;
• Co-operation programmes in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova, Georgia
• Producing toolkits and carrying out research on electoral matters and trends.

 Parliamentary and Electoral Cooperation Division

 Electoral assistance - Electoral assistance

• Observation of local and regional elections complementing political monitoring of the European Charter of Local Self-Government;
• Three to five election observation missions per year subject to official invitation by state authorities;
• Follow up on recommendations: transversal reports on recurring issues and post-electoral dialogue.

• "The Council for Democratic Elections, created following the resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly calling for the drafting of a Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters, is the only tripartite body of the Council of Europe, comprising members of the Venice Commission, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. The OSCE/ODIHR regularly participates in its work.
• After the Code was adopted and endorsed by the Committee of Ministers, the Assembly and the Congress, the Council became permanent. It examines all opinions and documents of a general nature (codes of good practice, guidelines, etc.) in the field of elections and political parties before they are submitted for adoption to the Venice Commission.
• The aim of the Council for Democratic Elections is to unite in the same body the legal experience of the Venice Commission and the political experience of the Assembly and the Congress. The Council for Democratic Elections (CED) thus promotes common European values, the principles of the European electoral heritage. »

 Council for Democratic Elections webpage

• The Court rules on individual or State applications alleging violations of the civil and political rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights;
• Annual publication of the Case-law Guide on Article 3 of Protocol No.1 as well as the factsheets “Right to vote” and “Prisoners' right to vote”.

• Constitutional law, standard setting (Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters);
• Legal opinions on draft legislation on elections, referendums and political parties;
• European Conferences of Electoral Management Bodies;
• Secretariat of the Council for Democratic Elections, the only tripartite body of the Council of Europe (Venice Commission, PACE, Congress);
• Multilateral or bilateral conferences and seminars;
• Electoral assistance;
• Legal advice to the PACE electoral observation missions;
• Electoral database ‘VOTA’.

 Venice Commission - Elections and referendums, political parties

 Venice Commission contact webpage

• Advises and assists the Committee of Ministers in its functions of supervision of the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, in accordance with Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention;
• Provides support to the member States in their efforts to achieve full, effective and prompt execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, in the cases to which they are parties.

 Department for the Execution of Judgments of the ECHR website

 Department for the Execution of the Judgments of the ECHR contact webpage

• Monitoring compliance by GRECO member States with the CoE’s standards on transparency of election and party financing (GRECO 3rd Evaluation Round);
• Monitoring compliance by GRECO member States with the CoE’s standards on prevention of corruption in respect of members of parliament, judges and prosecutors (GRECO 4th Evaluation Round);
• Involvement and participation in internal and external events (PACE, UN, OECD, etc.).

 GRECO website

 GRECO contact webpage

• Guidance Note on Aspects of election interference by means of computer systems covered by the Budapest Convention;
• Thematic area: Interference with elections through malicious cyber activities against computers and data used in elections and election campaigns;
• Thematic area: Information operations against integrity of electoral process (ONLY as part of action on cybercrime – information disorder is the domain of DGII colleagues);
• Past CyberEast project 2019-2023 (Republic of Moldova, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine). In 2020, produced a thematic video on election interference/election cyber threats, a webinar on preparation for elections security and provided both tabletop and technical exercises (in Georgia) focusing on election security;
• Joint Main Session 2 at the Octopus Cybercrime Conference 2025 together with the Venice Commission on Cyber interference with democracy;
• CyberEast+ project 2024-2027 (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine): Regional Technical Exercise in Bucharest on elections interference together with Romanian Cybersecurity Directorate and similar national exercise with Central Elections Commission of Ukraine in 2025;
• CyberEast+ project: Training on combating disinformation through Cybercrime Convention tools in Ukraine and Armenia in 2025 (tabletop exercise focused on election interference case study).

• Ensures the follow-up of activities of the Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAI) and supports preparations for the new mandate; 
• Manages technical cooperation activities in artificial intelligence and digital development;
• Guides the work of the AI Coordination Group, working across different sectors of the Council of Europe.

• Responsible for the Council of Europe’s cooperation concerning measures against corruption, money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation financing, related transnational and organised crime as well as recovery of illicit proceeds, in line with Council of Europe, EU and other international standards;
• Interventions focusing on addressing recommendations provided by monitoring bodies such as GRECO and MONEYVAL (FATF or other FSRBs when applicable);
• Developing Council of Europe guidelines, tools and procedures to support countries in managing risks and increasing effectiveness of countering economic crime.

• General mandate for democracy-related matters and good governance. Electoral aspects addressed incidentally by the late CDDG. CDDEM addresses global policy issues such as voter dissatisfaction from elections, enhancing electoral participation within the context of general democratic backsliding; 
• In 2021, work on Guidelines on new technologies and the different stages of the electoral process (including voter registration, transmission and tabulation of results, etc.);
• In 2026 Guidelines on enhancing participation of women, girls and young persons and vulnerable groups;
• ToRs 2024-2027 organise periodic reviews of the Recommendation on E-voting (regarding implementation; report following exchanges on implementation by 2026) and review of Recommendation (CM) on principles of good democratic governance at all levels of government, also addressing free and fair elections by 2027.

• Strategic objective (Gender Equality Strategy 2018-2023) to achieve balanced participation of women and men in political and public decision-making. (Recommendation CM/Rec(2003)3 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on balanced participation of women and men in political and public decision-making, and Recommendation CM/Rec(2019)1 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on preventing and combating sexism) to be taken into consideration in electoral assistance.

 Gender Equality Division website

 Gender Equality Division contact webpage

• The Council of Europe's youth sector aims to empower young people across Europe to embrace, promote and benefit from the core values of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. It focuses on strengthening young people’s access to rights, deepening their knowledge, and developing their skills to actively engage in democratic life and political processes;
• Since 1972, the Council of Europe has become the main driving force behind youth policy development and youth work in Europe. Its youth sector co-management system brings together member States and young people to work together to build more just, democratic and safer societies across Europe;
• The youth sector supports the development and implementation of youth policies, facilitates a pan-European platform for the exchange of experiences and good practices, and fosters bilateral and multilateral co-operation to promote youth perspectives in policy and decision-making at all levels;
• In line with the Reykjavik Principles for Democracy, the youth sector ensures that the democratic rights of young people in electoral processes are respected. It helps young people exercise their right to participate in elections and democratic processes as voters and candidates.

 Youth department website

 Youth department contact webpage

• organises Roma Political Schools – to promote Roma political participation and civic engagement;
• offers training for electoral participation, raising Roma voter awareness and greater participation in elections;
• carried out a study on the active political participation of national minority youth in Council of Europe member states.

  CDADI website

 CDADI contact webpage

• Roma Political Schools – Promoting Roma Political Participation and Civic Engagement;
• Training for electoral participation and raising of Roma voter awareness and enhance participation in elections;
• Study on the active political participation of national minority youth in Council of Europe member states/ CDADI.

Roma and Travellers Division website: www.coe.int/roma

• Improving quality of journalism in relation to media coverage of elections, in particular by addressing election result reporting, promoting ethical journalism, countering disinformation, and combatting hate speech;
• Training for National Elections Commissions (ex: in Libya, Training session in partnership with the HNEC on Ethical and Professional Media Election Reporting in Libya) and journalists;
• Promotion of: 
  • Recommendation CM/Rec(2022)12 on electoral communication and media coverage of election campaigns
  • Recommendation CM/Rec(2022)16 on combating hate speech
  • Guidance Note on countering the spread of online mis- and disinformation through fact-checking and platform design solutions in a human rights compliant manner
• Strengthening resilience to disinformation, potentially impacting electoral processes, notably through its project RESIST.

• DPAER also provides policy planning support through strategic analyses about relevant political and societal developments in Europe and beyond to enhance CoE’s ability to anticipate major trends and challenges and to offer coherent short- and long-term responses;
• DPAER is responsible within the Organisation for the implementation of a series of Confidence Building Measures (CBM's) for addressing the consequences of post- or frozen conflicts situations;
• DPAER is responsible for the identification of relevant political developments affecting relations with non-European States, including Observer States and partners in the CoE neighbouring regions, as well as the CoE institutional and political relations with other international organisations and institutions. It also provides advice and proposals to promote co-operation and partnerships and increase synergies and enhance external visibility.