When it came to giving binding legal force to the rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations on 10 December 1948, the Council of Europe adopted two separate treaties, at an interval of about 10 years.

It focused first on civil and political rights, which were incorporated in the European Convention on Human Rights.

Even if a reference to the social dimension appears both in the preamble and in Article 1 of the Statute of the Council of Europe, it took over 10 years after the adoption of the Convention for the Charter finally to be adopted.

The European Social Charter, which is today considered the counterpart of the European Convention on Human Rights in the sphere of economic and social rights was opened for signature by the member States of the Council of Europe in Turin, in Palazzo Madama, on 18 October 1961.