About inclusion and anti-discrimination

The projects offer concrete and tested solutions to governmental and non-governmental partners in member States to protect and promote the European Convention on Human Rights and relevant Council of Europe standards.

Most of the projects are designed to support member States specifically in implementing the recommendations of the relevant Council of Europe monitoring bodies:

• European Commission against Racism (ECRI)
• Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM)
• European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages (ECRML)

The approach of the Anti-Discrimination Department is to establish the direct link between legally-binding standards, the monitoring processes and the implementation of co-operation activities.

The division works closely with the existing networks of equality bodies and national human rights structures (ombudsmen and national human rights institutions); other Council of Europe monitoring bodies (such as the European Court of Human Rights, European Committee of Social Rights, the Group of experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) and their secretariats; European network NGO’s and national civil society platforms; and international actors, such as the EU commission and its agencies (including the Fundamental Rights Agency), the UN agencies (such as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Development Programme) and the OSCE/ODIHR.