Social Rights

The European Social Charter will celebrate its 60th anniversary on 18 October 2021. With this in mind, the Department of the European Social Charter is launching a dedicated webpage to share up-to-date information on 60th anniversary activities and other social rights developments in Europe.

The first event organised in the framework of the 60th anniversary celebrations focused on ‘taking stock’ of the Charter and the work of its supervisory body – the European Committee of Social Rights. It was organised by the University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre, together with the Roma Tre University’s Centro Internazionale di Ricerca ‘Diritto e Globalizzazione’ and with the support of the European Social Charter Department.

For 60 years, the European Social Charter has been protecting the social and economic rights of citizens across Europe. It was open for signature on 18 October 1961 in Turin, Italy. 

The Charter did not remain frozen in the past. It was revised and new rights have been included to take into account the challenges facing our constantly changing societies. Also through the work of the European Committee of Social Rights, the Charter has remained alive and at the heart of the Council of Europe’s statutory goals: human rights, rule of law and democracy, which cannot be realised without the respect for social rights.

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