European Committee of Social Rights

The European Committee of Social Rights is the monitoring body of the European Social Charter. It is composed of 15 independent, impartial members which are elected by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers for a period of six years, renewable once.

The European Committee of Social Rights rules on the conformity of the situation in States with the Charter under two complementary mechanisms: through collective complaints lodged by the social partners and governmental organisations (collective complaints procedure), and through national reports drawn up by the States Parties (reporting procedure).

States Parties have an obligation to cooperate with the Committee and its jurisprudence (both “decisions” in complaints and “conclusions” on the basis of national reports). This obligation arises from the application of the principle of good faith to the observance of all treaty obligations. For States Parties to ignore or not take into account the Committee’s decisions and conclusions would be to fail to show good faith in implementing their Charter-based obligations.

Members

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Decisions and conclusions

Activity Reports

Indietro States Parties to the European Social Charter are invited to report on health, social security and social protection by 31 December 2020

States Parties to the European Social Charter are invited to report on health, social security and social protection by 31 December 2020

The European Committee of Social Rights transmitted the questions to States Parties of the Revised European Social Charter and the 1961 Charter relating to the provisions belonging to the thematic group 2 on health, social security and social protection under the reporting procedure. States parties are invited to report on the accepted provisions under the following articles: Article 3 (the right to safe and healthy working conditions), Article 11 (the right to protection of health), Article 12 (the right to social security), Article 13 (the right to social and medical assistance), Article 14, (the right to benefit from social welfare services), Article 23 or Article 4 of the of the Additional Protocol (the right of elderly persons to social protection), and Article 30 (the right to protection against poverty and social exclusion).

As in 2019, the European Committee of Social Rights, wishing to focus its monitoring and to alleviate the reporting burden of States, invites States Parties to limit the report to replies to specific and targeted questions for each of the above-mentioned articles of the Charter, without prejudice to responding to issues still pending from previous reporting cycles.

This is a result of the work carried out by the Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH) to identify good practices through a report with a view to improving the implementation of social rights in Europe and the proposals made by the European Committee of Social Rights which aim to render the reporting procedure under the European Social Charter more effective and targeted.

As the questions were addressed to states later than usual, the European Committee of Social Rights invites countries to submit their reports by 31 December 2020 (instead of end of October). Similarly, the Committee extends the period for submission of comments on national reports by trade unions, employers’ organisations and non-governmental organisations until 30 June 2021 (instead of the usual 30 April deadline).

Strasbourg, France 27/07/2020