Council of Europe: a website for civil society to boost cooperation on human rights, democracy and justice

“Join us to build a better Europe”. This is the appeal made by the Council of Europe to civil society organisations and NGOs. Their contribution, a statement from Strasbourg reads, is an important element in the Council of Europe’s mission “to build a future based on human rights, democracy and justice”. Indeed, their involvement “has grown over the years” and their role has now been acknowledged “thanks to measures agreed by member states”. In order to boost cooperation between civil society and this international institution, the Council has now launched a website that provides the information needed to understand the complexity of this institution. The Council explained in a statement that there are “many ways that civil society and NGOs - especially international NGOs - can get involved”, from actual partnership, to providing information to different bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights or the Commissioner for Human Rights, to aiding the work of monitoring bodies as they carry out their work in different countries. The website also provides information on the ways in which human rights defenders can seek help if they are threatened, and on available resources.
Sarah Numico