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Lithuania: more needs to be done to combat human trafficking
Lithuania has made progress in tackling human trafficking in recent years, but improvements are needed to prevent trafficking for labour exploitation, protect children from trafficking and provide victims with assistance, accommodation, health care and access to compensation. These are among the...
New reports on minority and regional languages in Czech Republic and Hungary
The Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of the Council of Europe has published reports on the situation with regional and minority languages in Hungary and Czech Republic. In the report on the Czech Republic, the Committee notes that progress has been...
Combating human trafficking in Germany
In a new report published today, the Council of Europe expert body on trafficking in human beings (GRETA) praises Germany for having significantly evolved its national legal framework against human trafficking since the first evaluation of the implementation of the Convention on Action against...
Re-run of mayoral election in Istanbul: Congress sends international observers
Following the decision taken on 6 May by the Turkish Supreme Election Council to cancel the 31 March election of the Mayor of Istanbul, a delegation from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe will observe the re-run of the mayoral election on 23 June 2019, at the...
Ireland : concerns over Roma and Travellers
Irish society has demonstrated increasing levels of tolerance in recent years, but national strategies or actions plans on key issues – such as the integration of Travellers and Roma communities – suffer from a lack of clear and concrete implementation plans. Furthermore, Traveller communities in...
Refugees and diverse societies, which policies for the intercultural city?
The Intercultural Cities (ICC) programme has launched a series of didactic and awareness videos addressing local governments wishing to evolve as intercultural municipalities. The videos give insights on how to adapt cities’ institutions and services to the needs of a diverse population by...
Death penalty in Belarus : execution condemned
The Committee of Ministers deeply deplores the execution of Mr Alyaksandr Zhylnikau, announced on 13 June 2019. It calls on the Belarussian authorities not to carry out the execution of Mr Vyachaslau Sukharko, condemned for the same crime as Mr Alyakasandr Zhylnikau. The Committee of Ministers...
Protecting victims of terrorism
A workshop on the protection of victims of terrorist acts will be organised on Thursday 20 June in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee for Human Rights. Its aim is to raise awareness of the Council of Europe Guidelines (2017) on the protection of victims of terrorism and to...
Member states must assume more responsibility for rescuing migrants at sea and protecting their rights
“European states’ approach to migration in the Mediterranean Sea has become much too focused on preventing refugees and migrants from reaching European shores, and too little on the humanitarian and human rights aspects. This approach is having tragic consequences”, said Dunja Mijatović, Council...
European Dialogue on Internet Governance in The Hague
A Council of Europe delegation will contribute to the debates of 2019 edition of the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) to be held in The Hague on 19 and 20 June. Organised under the theme “Co-operating in the digital age”, the event will bring together representatives of...