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.
This treaty system:
guarantees a broad range of human rights with respect to everyday essential needs related to employment and working conditions, housing, education, health, medical assistance and social protection;
lays specific emphasis on the protection of vulnerable persons such as elderly people, children, people with disabilities and migrants. It requires that enjoyment of the abovementioned rights be guaranteed without discrimination;
is based on the principle of universality, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelation of human rights, as set forth in the United Nations’ Vienna Declaration of 1993, which confirms that social rights are human rights on an equal footing with civil and political rights;
complements at pan-European level the safeguards contained in the European Convention on Human Rights, which specifically refers to civil and political rights.
In this framework, while taking into account the evolution which has occurred in Europe since the European Social Charter (ETS No. 35), adopted in 1961, the Revised European Social Charter (ETS No.163), adopted in 1996:
embodies in a single instrument all the rights guaranteed by the 1961Charter and its Additional Protocol of 1988 (ETS No. 128),
adds new rights and amendments adopted by the Parties.
The Revised Charter is gradually replacing the initial 1961 treaty.
Signatures and ratifications
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 43 out of the 46 member States of the Council of Europe are parties to either the 1961 Charter or the Revised Charter.
Only Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Switzerland have not ratified either of these treaties.
The Charter is based on a ratification system, enabling States, under certain conditions, to choose the provisions they are willing to accept as binding international legal obligations. They are encouraged to progressively accept all the Charter’s provisions.
Enforcement of the Revised Charter is submitted to the same monitoring mechanism as the 1961 Charter, i.e. the reporting system; this system was further developed and strengthened in 1991 by an Amending Protocol (ETS No. 142), which is applied on the basis of a decision taken by the States concerned.
In this framework, the honouring of commitments entered into by the States Parties is subject to the monitoring of the European Committee of Social Rights.
This body monitors compliance under the two existing monitoring mechanisms:
through collective complaints lodged by the social partners and other non-governmental organisations (collective complaints procedure),
through national reports drawn up by States Parties (reporting system).
Insofar as they refer to binding legal provisions and are adopted by a monitoring body established by a binding treaty and the relevant protocols, decisions and conclusions of the European Committee of Social Rights must be respected by the States concerned, even if they are not directly enforceable in the domestic legal systems. They set out the law and can provide the basis for positive developments in social rights through legislation and case-law at national level.
Ultimately, it falls to the European Committee of Social Rights to determine whether the situation has been brought into compliance with the Charter by the State Party concerned. This is done by the Committee in the framework of the reporting system or the collective complaints procedure.
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European Committee of Social Rights statement on the right to protection of health in times of pandemic crisis
In a statement of interpretation issued today on the right to protection of health (Article 11 of the European Social Charter) in times of pandemic, the European Committee of Social Rights endorses many measures adopted by states in response to COVID-19: “testing and tracing, physical distancing and self-isolation, the provision of adequate masks and disinfectant, as well as the imposition of quarantine and ‘lockdown’ arrangements. All such measures must be designed and implemented having regard to the current state of scientific knowledge and in accordance with relevant human rights standards.” The Committee recalls the need for adequate public health provision and resourcing, including for research, vaccine development and prevention. It also points to a range of other social human rights affected by the pandemic, including the right to health and safety at work or the rights of children and older persons, to which authorities must pay attention.
“In times of pandemic, the protection of the right to health for all must be the primary aim of State policies and measures, because pandemics - and state responses thereto – can also pose significant risks to many other social rights. The European Committee of Social Rights will offer further guidance to states on social rights exigencies in the response to COVID-19. The Committee will scrutinise closely action taken by states in response to the pandemic in terms of their social rights obligations. The questionnaire to states parties to the European Social Charter is already being prepared with this in mind,” declared the Committee’s President Giuseppe Palmisano.