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Croatia should strengthen human trafficking investigations and sanctions and access to compensation for victims
A new report on Croatia from the Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) focuses on victim access to justice and effective remedies. GRETA acknowledges steps taken, since its previous report on Croatia was published in 2016, to develop the...
Albania must implement legal framework to prevent corruption of ministers, their advisers and the police
In a new report the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) finds that in Albania, the legal framework for preventing corruption of members of the Council of Ministers and their political advisers, and of the police, is comprehensive, but still overly complex. It calls on...
Poland should stop the stigmatisation of LGBTI people
“Public officials and opinion makers should stop promoting an atmosphere of hate and intolerance vis-à-vis LGBTI people and instead, improve respect for their human rights. Stigmatisation and hate speech carry a real risk of legitimising violence. LGBTI are people, not an ideology”, said the...
States should deliver on their commitments to persons with disabilities
This year, we mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities at a time when the COVID19 pandemic is still raging in Europe. The pandemic has disproportionately affected persons with disabilities and exposed all the pre-existing failings in Council of Europe member states. Among many...
“Covid-19: Local and regional authorities on the frontline”
Local and regional authorities are on the front line in containing the spread of Covid-19 and mitigating the impact of the epidemic. In order to hear the stories of those who have been organising, coordinating and delivering responses to the crisis in towns and cities, provinces and Départements,...
Nabila Hamza and Leoluca Orlando awarded North-South Prize
Portuguese Parliament President Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues today awarded the Council of Europe’s North-South Prize to Nabila Hamza (Tunisia) and Leoluca Orlando (Italy). The 2019 prize – given in the Senate room of the Portuguese Parliament – annually distinguishes two people for their exceptional...
Bulgarian psychiatric and social care institutions: ill-treatment, acute understaffing, mechanical restraint misuse
In a new report the Council of Europe’s anti-torture Committee (CPT) has expressed grave concern that many of its long-standing recommendations concerning the treatment, conditions and legal safeguards offered to psychiatric patients and residents of social care institutions remain unimplemented....
Convention on access to official documents enters into force
The Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents, the first binding international legal instrument to recognise a general right of access to official documents held by public authorities, entered into force today. The treaty, also known as the Tromsø Convention, after the city in...
Access to official documents is crucial – let’s make it a reality
People have the right to know what those in power are doing. This was the basis on which the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents was adopted more than ten years ago in Tromsø, Norway. This Convention is the first binding international legal instrument to recognise a...
Implementing European Court of Human Rights judgments
The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers will carry out its latest quarterly meeting to oversee the execution of judgments and decisions from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg from 1 to 3 December. Information on the cases to be examined in detail this week is available here....
