Council of Europe

The role of Council of Europe bodies in monitoring

Committee of Ministers

The Committee of Ministers monitors the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. This takes the form of either:
  
• individual measures, which include ensuring that payments ordered by the Court have been made and that injured parties are restored in so far as possible to their situation prior to their rights violation; or

• general measures, which include ensuring that changes are made to a constitution or legislation in order to avoid similar rights violations in future.

This work is carried out in 4 meeting a year and decisions are generally made public.

Learn more about the Committee of Ministers' role in the execution of judgements  

See the Directorate of Monitoring website on the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.  Meeting reports, press releases, pending cases, are but a few of the many documents accessible here.

The Committee of Ministers also plays a role in other monitoring processes, see for example the sections below on the European Social Charter and on the Framework Convention for the Protection of Minorities.

 Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe – country reports, progress reports, resolutions 

The Parliamentary Assembly's Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (the Monitoring Committee) is responsible for verifying that member states are in compliance with the Statutes of the Council of Europe, the European Convention on Human Rights and all other Council of Europe conventions to which they are parties. It also monitors the commitments entered into by the member sates when they accede to the Council.

The Assembly has the power to sanction states that persistently fail to honour obligations or fail to co-operate with the monitoring process. Sanctions, in a first phase, may take the form of non-ratification of credentials of a national delegation to the Assembly. If serious violations persist, the state in question may eventually be suspended from the Council of Europe.

Learn more about Assembly's monitoring procedures at: The Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe – country-by-country reports

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities monitors the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, a defining text for the Congress, to assess how local and regional democracy in both old and newer member states is being practised. Monitoring is carried out through different types of reports, from general country reports to more advanced second general reports.

Learn more about this procedure and consult individual country reports

Go to:
Treaty-based monitoring
Other independent human rights monitoring bodies
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