Newsroom
Is Russia making any progress in criminalising bribery and ensuring transparency of party funding? – GRECO’s assessment
The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) has published a new assessment of the implementation by Russia of its recommendations on incriminations and transparency of party funding. Twelve recommendations (as compared to 11 during the previous assessment) out of 21 have...
Summer Session: Croatian and Slovak Prime Ministers to address PACE
PACE is scheduled to elect its new President at its summer session in Strasbourg (25-29 June 2018). VIPs to address members include the Croatian and Slovak Prime Ministers as well as the Luxembourg Foreign Minister. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of...
Hungary: “Stop Soros” provision on illegal migration should be repealed as it seriously impairs legitimate NGO work, say Venice Commission legal experts
An opinion adopted today by the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission criticises a key provision on illegal migration of the so-called “Stop Soros” legislation that the Hungarian Parliament adopted this week. The new provision – Article 353A of the Criminal Code – introduces the offence of...
Poland: Council of Europe anti-corruption group criticises weakening independence of courts and judges
Following–up on preliminary findings of March 2018, the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) has now re-assessed legislation passed in respect of Poland’s judiciary in 2017-18, including the new amendments to the laws on the National Council of the Judiciary, the Supreme...
Committee for the Prevention of Torture factsheet on transport of detainees
CPT delegations have periodically inspected vehicles intended for the transport of detainees, mainly by road and rail. They often found that conditions were substandard or that basic safety requirements were not being met. The Committee also detected practices which merited criticism (e.g....
Unrelenting rise in xenophobic populism, resentment, hate speech in Europe in 2017
Xenophobic populism and hate speech have continued to be on the rise in 2017, with high levels of migration and challenges of integration, religious extremism, terrorist attacks and the austerity-driven socio-economic climate observed all over Europe, says the annual report of the European...
Data protection: conference on the modernisation of “Convention 108”
The Council of Europe is organising a conference in Strasbourg on 21 June to discuss the implications for data protection globally of the recently adopted modernisation of the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, known as “Convention...
Anti-torture Committee publishes critical report on police ill-treatment in Serbia and the outdated treatment of remand prisoners
The Serbian authorities must recognise that ill-treatment by the police is an accepted practice, and not the work of a few rogue officers; they must effectively investigate the allegations of ill-treatment and punish the crime, said the Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee (CPT) in the...
The UK ratifies the Lanzarote Convention to protect children against sexual violence
The United Kingdom has formally ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, known as the Lanzarote Convention. The convention is a legally-binding treaty which obliges countries to take a wide range of steps to help prevent...
Human trafficking: Spain achieved progress, but further action needed against trafficking for labour exploitation
Spain has made progress in developing the legislative, institutional and policy framework against trafficking in human beings. However, improvements are needed in a number of areas, in particular more efforts are required to tackle trafficking for labour exploitation, says the Council of Europe’s...
Refugee today – citizen tomorrow?
There is a voice which is rarely heard in the deeply divisive debate about refugee policies – the voice of cities. Listening to cities can not only make the debate more constructive, it can also help shape policies which reconcile solidarity and societal cohesion. Most asylum-seekers and refugees...
Cabo Verde joins the data protection and cybercrime conventions
Cabo Verde today acceded to the Council of Europe´s Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, known as “Convention 108”, to its Additional Protocol on transborder data flows and supervisory authorities, and to the Convention on Cybercrime....
Secretary General Jagland to meet Russian President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov in Moscow
Secretary General Jagland will meet President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday to discuss current relations between Russia and the Council of Europe. Mr Jagland will also meet Russian Ombudsperson Moskalkova. Contact: daniel.holtgen@coe.int
“Stop Soros” legislation in Hungary: Venice Commission president asks Hungarian parliament not to proceed with vote before its opinion on the matter is adopted
Venice Commission President Gianni Buquicchio met with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto on Monday 18 June in Strasbourg at the Council of Europe to discuss the upcoming opinion on new “Stop Soros” legislative provisions. President Buquicchio called on the Hungarian Parliament not to...
Croatian Chairmanship underlines the importance of dialogue with national minority representatives and the competent institutions in advancing national minority rights
Chair of the Committee of Ministers, Marija Pejčinović Burić, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia and Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe opened a conference entitled “Minorities and Minority Languages in a Changing Europe” in...
EURIMAGES Gender Equality Outreach event in Canada
On the occasion of the 151st Board of Management meeting in Montréal, EURIMAGES will renew its commitment to gender equality through an international outreach event (Cinémathèque québecoise, 7pm), organised in co-operation with Telefilm Canada: a panel discussion with Canadian female film-makers,...
Improving the management of prison and probation services – Jõhvi conference
The Council of Europe’s annual Conference of Directors of Prisons and Probation Services, to be held in Jõhvi (Estonia) on 19 and 20 June, will explore ways to improve the management of prisons and probation services, and the co-operation between them. Held under the theme “Working together...
Greece ratifies the Istanbul Convention
Today, in Strasbourg, in the presence of Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Ambassador Stelios Perrakis, Permanent Representative of Greece to the Council of Europe, deposited the instrument of ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and...
Estonia: human rights should steer policies for women, older persons, minorities
“Estonia has been developing at a fast pace, but some people in the country risk being left behind. To achieve a more inclusive society, Estonia should combat discrimination and abuses against older persons, tackle the gender pay gap and violence against women, and devote more efforts to building...
Conference “National Minorities and Minority Languages in a changing Europe” in Strasbourg next week
A high-level conference “Minorities and Minority Languages in a Changing Europe” will be held in Strasbourg on 18-19 June on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the entry into force of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Charter for Regional or...
Positive results of the European Convention of Human Rights
Council of Europe launches new information resource
Council of Europe meeting with the Media and Law Studies Association (Turkey)
Exchange of views between Christos Giakoumopoulos, Council of Europe Director General for Human Rights and Rule of Law, and MLSA President Evin Barış Altıntaş and Vice President Veysel Ok
Secretary General welcomes name agreement between Athens and Skopje
The Secretary General of the 47-nation Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, has warmly welcomed the agreement achieved between the Prime Ministers of Greece and “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” on the name issue. “This agreement has been a long time coming. It shows that talking,...
Norway ratifies Council of Europe Convention to protect children against sexual violence
Today Norway became the 43rd state of the Council of Europe to have ratified the Convention on Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote Convention). The Convention will enter into force in Norway on 1 October 2018. Council of Europe Secretary General...
EDQM/European Pharmacopeia: new building will ensure continuity in pharmaceutical reference standards supply
The first stone of a new secondary site for the Council of Europe’s European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and HealthCare (EDQM) has been laid. The new site will be used to store the EDQM’s portfolio of over 3 000 pharmaceutical reference standards, as an addition to those already in...
Sweden: progress made in combating human trafficking, but need to address all forms of trafficking
The Council of Europe’s expert group against human trafficking (GRETA) publishes today its second evaluation report on Sweden. The report assesses developments since the publication of GRETA’s first evaluation report on Sweden in May 2014 as regards the implementation of the Council of Europe’s...
Implementing ECHR judgments: Latest decisions from the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers
The latest case-by-case decisions on the implementation of judgments from the European Court of Human Rights have been published by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. The committee adopted 30 decisions concerning 18 member states at the end of its regular three-day meeting in...
Fighting drug smugglers more efficiently: Council of Europe works with international partners to produce new online tool for drug enforcement agencies
A new Council of Europe-supported online tool* – a handbook designed to help drug enforcement officials to increase the number of arrests of drug smugglers – is being launched in Strasbourg on 6 June 2018. The Council of Europe‘s Pompidou group, together with Eurojust, Europol, Interpol, OSCE...
GRECO report on Denmark: more transparency in party financing needed
The Council of Europe's anti-corruption group (GRECO) today published its Sixth Interim Compliance Report concerning transparency of party funding in Denmark. Despite some progress made since the evaluation report published in 2010, GRECO is rather disappointed overall by the limited results...
Implementing European Court of Human Rights judgments
The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers is holding its quarterly meeting to oversee the execution of judgments from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg from 5 to 7 June. Information on the cases to be examined at the meeting is available here. Decisions taken by the committee...
20th anniversary of the European Institute of Cultural Routes in Luxembourg
The Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe Programme (www.coe.int/routes), strong of 32 members Parties to the Enlarged Partial Agreement (EPA) and 33 certified Cultural Routes, celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the European Institute of Cultural Routes (EICR), in presence of the Director...
Council of Europe at the European Dialogue on Internet Governance
A Council of Europe delegation will contribute to the discussions of the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) to be held on 5 and 6 June in Tbilisi (Georgia). Under the theme “Innovative strategies for our digital future”, the EuroDIG 2018 will bring together representatives of...
Greece: Understaffing in psychiatric establishments and poor conditions of detained foreign nationals highlighted by anti-torture committee delegation
A nine-day visit to Greece carried out in April by a delegation of the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) focused on the treatment, living conditions and safeguards offered to civil and forensic patients in...
MONEYVAL’s annual report: money laundering risks are increasing
The Council of Europe anti money laundering and counter terrorist financing body MONEYVAL has just published its General Activity Report for 2017. Presenting the report to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 30 May, the Chairman of MONEYVAL, Daniel Thelesklaf, pointed out that...
Council of Europe and UEFA sign Memorandum of Understanding
Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland and UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin have signed today at Palais de l’Europe a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen their co-operation and implement common strategies in areas of shared interest. This landmark agreement focuses on four...
Spokesperson of the Secretary General: Statement by the Spokesperson on reported executions in Belarus
“Reports about two more executions in Belarus this month are alarming. “The Council of Europe calls on Belarus to introduce a moratorium on the death penalty as a first step to its final abolition. Capital punishment has no place in Europe.”
Council of Europe and UEFA sign a Memorandum of Understanding
Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland and UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin will tomorrow sign a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen co-operation and implement common strategies in the field of human rights, integrity and good governance in sport. The two Organisations also...
Europe’s duty to internally displaced persons
“People are forced to leave their homes for different reasons, ranging from war and violence to natural disasters and climate change. However, this does not always entail the crossing of an internationally recognised border. Even if they do not leave their country, people who flee their homes are...
Albania should step up protection of children and inclusion of persons with disabilities
Today the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, concluded her five-day visit to Albania which focused on children’s rights, the rights of persons with disabilities, and access to free legal aid. Concerning children’s rights, the Commissioner welcomes the authorities’...
Legal guide on how to apply new data protection rules
The European Union and the Council of Europe have reviewed their legal frameworks for the protection of personal data to keep pace with changes in this fast-moving area. Building on the popular practical handbook on European data protection law, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights...
Towards a Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime: Invitation to participate in consultations
Consultations on the ongoing preparation of a 2nd Additional Protocol to the Budapest Convention will be held within the framework of the Octopus Conference on Cybercrime from 11 to 13 July 2018, and specifically on Thursday, 12 July. They are to permit an exchange of views between...
Five additional members joining GREVIO
Today, in Strasbourg, in accordance with Resolution CM/Res(2014)43 on rules on the election procedure of the members of the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO), adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 19 November 2014,...
Albania: Anti-torture committee concludes that the treatment of persons detained by the police has improved, but conditions of forensic psychiatric patients remain unacceptable
The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) published today the report on its visit to Albania in February 2017, together with the response of the Albanian authorities. The vast majority of detained persons interviewed by...
Anti-racism Commission launches updated standards for European equality bodies
Today, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) of the Council of Europe has launched revised standards (General Policy Recommendation No.2) for the establishment and functioning of European equality bodies. These bodies should be established by constitutional or...
Dubrovnik conference on cross-border cooperation in Europe
A conference organised in the context of the Croatian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers will discuss and promote legal frameworks, capacity-building tools and data collection in cross-border cooperation in Europe. The one-day event is taking place on 25 May in Dubrovnik, Croatia, which...
Council of Europe co-operation with Internet sector: two new partners
The Council of Europe's Secretary General, Thorbjørn Jagland, today signed collaboration agreements - in the form of an exchange of letters – with the European Internet Service Providers Association (EuroISPA) and the IT security and performance firm Cloudflare to promote respect for human...
Ten years of anti-human trafficking convention – special conference in Strasbourg
Over 150 experts from across Europe are taking part today in a conference to mark ten years since the Council of Europe convention against trafficking in human beings entered into force. Among representatives of various international organisations, national authorities and NGOs, participants will...
21 May 2018: World Day for Cultural Diversity
Article by the Deputy Secretary General on Intercultural Cities: "Diversity as an advantage"
Croatia takes over chairmanship of Committee of Ministers from Denmark
The Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe today passed from Denmark to Croatia, at a meeting in Elsinore, Denmark, attended by representatives of its 47 member States. The outgoing Chair, Anders Samuelsen, Minister of Foreign affairs of Denmark, handed over to the...
Danish Chairmanship concludes overwhelming support to start Council of Europe “Elsinore Reform Process“
Responding to the need to resolve current political and financial challenges, Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen presented his conclusions of discussions at the Committee of Ministers meeting in Elsinore on 17 and 18 May. Speech
