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.
Indietro
Deputy Secretary General opens Joint Workshop on family as a hub for social policies in Rome
The Deputy Secretary General Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni will open together with the Italian Minister for Equal Opportunities and Family, Elena Bonetti the Joint Workshop on family as a hub for social policies. The event is organised by the Department for Family Policies of the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the European Social Cohesion Platform (PECS) of the Council of Europe and will take place in Rome on 9 and 10 October.
The joint workshop will be focused on the main social topics having an impact on both women and men, especially on working mothers and fathers and their children and it is divided into 4 working sessions:
Work-life balance and company welfare;
Family measures to promote the increase in the birth-rate in Europe;
Support services for children witnessing violence and children orphaned by domestic crimes;
Eradication of child poverty.
Opening remarks will also be addressed by the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs of Armenia, Zaruhi Batoyan; by the Minister of Social Security and Labour of Lithuania, Linas Kukuraitis and by the Minister for the Family, Children’s Rights, and Social Solidarity of Malta, Michael Falzon.
The joint workshop will be followed by the 4th meeting of the European Social Cohesion Platform*. The Platform will exchange views on the draft work plan for 2020-2021 and make proposals for future activities, it will examine the draft Declaration of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers on Addressing Child Poverty, as well as the draft Council of Europe Revised Strategy (2020-2021) on social cohesions. In addition, the Platform will hold a discussion on the Report on Middle Class and Social Cohesion that will be presented by Prof. Paolo Graziano, the author.
* The objective of the European Social Cohesion Platform is to reinforce the intergovernmental component of the Secretary General’s strategy to enhance the Council of Europe’s work in the area of social cohesion, in particular through the promotion of the European Social Charter and its collective complaints procedure in order to ensure equal and effective access to social rights.