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On January 29 the Council of Europe and Social Platform are organising an awareness-raising training for key European INGOs on how to use the collective complaints mechanism of the Social Charter.

The European Social Charter is a Council of Europe treaty adopted in 1961 and revised in 1996 which guarantees the human rights of daily life. It covers the right to movement and protection of individuals – securing the principle of non-discrimination on any ground – regarding housing, health, education, social security, protection against poverty and social exclusion, employment. Within these areas, there are also provisions that protect specific target groups such as children, women, disabled, elderly people and migrants.

The Charter is a human rights treaty, complement to the European Convention on Human Rights which refers to civil and political rights. Together, the two treaties cover more or less the whole spectrum of human rights. The Council of Europe is committed to the principle of indivisibility: social rights are human rights on equal footing with civil and political rights. The Charter is one of the most widely ratified human rights treaties of the Council of Europe. The widespread support for social rights is assured by the fact that almost all of the 47 Council of Europe member states are parties to one of the main instruments, either the 1961 European Social Charter or the Revised European Social Charter of 1996.

The European Committee of Social Rights monitors compliance with the Charter through ‘reports’ drawn up by States and through ‘collective complaints’ lodged by NGOs and social partners. It’s a parallell protection system which complements the judicial protection provided under the European Convention on Human Rights. However, it should be noted that collective complaints may be lodged without domestic remedies having been exhausted and without the complainant organisation necessarily being a victim of the alleged violation.

Read more about the event in our calendar