Strasbourg, 9 March 2015CDDECS-BU (2015) RAP 1

 

 

 

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR SOCIAL COHESION,

HUMAN DIGNITY AND EQUALITY

(CDDECS)

 

 

 

BUREAU

3rd MEETING

 

19 and 20 February 2015

 

 

 

Room 1

Council of Europe, Paris Office

55 Avenue Kléber, Paris

 

 

 

FINAL REPORT

 

 

1. OPENING OF THE MEETING AND ADOPTION OF THE DRAFT ANNOTATED AGENDA

The Bureau adopted the agenda as proposed. (see Appendix 1)

 

2. ADOPTION OF THE REPORT OF THE 2nd MEETING OF THE BUREAU

The Bureau adopted the meeting report as proposed.

 

3. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CDDECS WORK PROGRAMME AND RESULTS OF THE AD HOC WORKING GROUPS’ WORK

The chair made a summary of the concept notes and other documents received from the 6 working groups and individual member States. The Bureau was asked to discuss the results. In addition to substantive discussion, exchange was had on the technical details.

 

• Chair to send (via the Secretariat) an email to CDDECS members urging them to join the working groups as the level of participation is too low currently.

 

Working group A – Roundtable discussion on “Social inclusion of all persons and in particular of all persons in vulnerable situations and effectiveness of rights”

 

Finland and Lithuania, members of the working group, presented the concept note.

 

• The working group will edit the concept note based on the Bureau’s discussion, and send it back to the Bureau (DL 13.3.2015)  to be accepted (DL 20.3.2015).
• The Secretariat will send to MS the concept note and as Member States to indicate if they intend to present a national challenge or good practice on social inclusion within one of four themes during the Round Table (DL 31.3.2015)
• The replies are sent to the working group and the working group will
  • prepare the roundtable based on the replies
  • indicate what the end product of the Roundtable will be (report, publication etc) and how it links with the later hearing on social inclusion

 

Working group B – Review of the Social Cohesion Strategy and Action Plan

 

France presented the concept note and the national contributions provided by individual working group members. No external expert had been employed at this stage of the process.

 

• Current Working group’s mandate is extended
• It will prepare a short questionnaire, based on the concept note, consulting MS on the current Strategy and collecting their views on a new Strategy  (DL 31.3.2015)
• The member States will send in their replies (DL 30.4.2015)
• The Working group will present the results of the consultation in May plenary for discussion
• Further work and to the method for elaborating a new strategy shall be decided in May by the Committee

 

 

Working group C - Exchange of good practices against discrimination and stereotypes on any ground.

 

The working group had not provided any concept note. Portugal, as member of the working group had provided a document on the issue.

 

• The chair to contact the working group and ask for a concept note (DL 20.3.2015)
• Concept note to be sent to the Bureau for comments (DL 17.4.2015)
• If no concept note is provided, the Secretariat will send out a questionnaire to all member States asking them to identify one good national practice against discrimination and stereotypes. The most interesting ones will then be presented and discussed in the plenary in May or in December.

 

Working group D - Hearing on social inclusion of all persons, and in particular of all persons in vulnerable situations

 

Bulgaria, who was alone in this working group, presented the concept note. During discussions a lot of weight was put on technical issues on arranging the hearing.

 

• The concept note will be updated and discussed in more detail after the roundtable discussion in May plenary.
• The subject matters will be connected to the roundtable discussion on social inclusion
• Inspiration for the format could be taken from the hearings organised by DECS-GEC in 2014and before.
• Chair will send a message to member States and request their active participation in the discussion in May

 

Working group E - Roundtable discussion on the role of equality bodies, national human rights institutions, and ombudsmen in promoting equality.

 

The chair presented the concept note as no members from the working group were present.

 

• The working group is to update the concept note based on the discussion in the Bureau and present the results to the Secretariat (DL 31.3.2015)
• The bureau will accept the paper in written procedure by (DL 17.4.2015)
• The CDDECS plenary will discuss the note during its May meeting.

 

Working group F - Concept paper on feasibility study/green book on existing materials for awareness on equality/discrimination and human rights for social workers, police, health sector professionals and legal professionals etc.

 

The working group, consisting of France, did not present a concept note. In the discussion it was noted that possibly an outside expert or an ad hoc working group for one year, using the method adopted by the CDDH working group on a recommendation on older persons human rights (2014) as an example, could be used for this. Also assistance could be received from national bodies.

 

• The Chair to contact a Dutch NGO, who deals with education and awareness issues to see if such work could be doable and useful. Then further measures will be considered.
• The Secretariat to find out from the survey replies which countries wanted to work on this issue and report back to the chair.

 

4. REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE "THE FUTURE OF THE PROTECTION OF SOCIAL RIGHTS IN EUROPE" - 12/13 FEBRUARY 2015, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

Vice-chair of the CDDECS participated in the conference and summarized the discussions that took place during the event. The conference was of high level and very legal in it’s approach, aiming at strengthening social rights through the use of the European Social Charter, its monitoring mechanism and its additional protocol on collective complaints.

 

• The Secretariat will circulate to the Bureau members the finalised and translated report by the vice- chair, together with the official report and the “Brussels declaration”, still expected from the BE presidency

 

5. FOLLOW UP TO THE SAMI EVENT “THE PEOPLE, THEIR CULTURE AND LANGUAGES AND THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE” – 27-29 NOVEMBER 2014 – INARI, FINLAND

The Secretariat informed the Bureau of the successful Sami event, which was the first event bringing together members of the three monitoring bodies, namely FCNM, ECRML and ECRI, in connexion with one subject, this time the Sami people.

 

The Secretariat is preparing a publication and a video as a follow up and the proposal for the monitoring bodies jointly to prepare a common general comment or something similar will be discussed in the upcoming joint meeting of the Bureaus in March 2015.

 

• The short video will be presented, possibly with an exhibition of photographs in the next CDDECS plenary. Representatives of Sami LGTB to participate in the exchange of views on stereotypes and discrimination during the next plenary session.

 

 

6. WORK OF THE THREE CDDECS SUBORDINATE BODIES

The Bureau took note of the latest meeting reports by its subordinate bodies.

 

The Bureau discussed the fact that CDDECS has not prepared any recommendations, as is done by its subordinate body DECS-RPD and also by the previous CDCS. The Chair noted that more implementation of existing standards, instead of standard setting, was expected and needed from CDDECS. 

 

Question was also raised on the strategy behind the work of the DECS-GEC and its possible cooperation with EIGE etc. the Chair, being the former chair of the DECS-GEC, informed that the work is based on the four pillars of the DECS-GEC’s strategy and that DECS-GEC cooperates among others, with EIGE already.

 

• The chairs (or if not possible, the secretariats) of the subordinate bodies will be invited to the next plenary of the CDDECS to inform about their recent work.

 

7. PREPARATION OF THE 3rd CDDECS MEETING (Strasbourg, 27-29/05/2015)

The draft agenda of the CDDECS plenary was discussed. Main importance was put on technical and procedural issues, including order of business.

 

Item 3     Implementation of the CDDECS working programme

• All working groups to be listed in proper order. Starting from Social inclusion roundtable. The expected outcome of the discussions to be noted in the annotated agenda.

 

Item 7     Exchange of views with specific CoE sectors

The last plenary exchanges were organised with the ESC, CPT and the CoE youth sector. The Secretariat informed that the post-Charlie priorities of the Secretary General are, among others, education, inclusion of youth and fight against hate speech on internet and media.

 

• To be invited to the next plenary for this item
  • Relevant parliamentary committees of the PACE
  • Committee on youth
  • Director for education
• Separate item - extremism and lack of social inclusion, with special interest in youth
• CDDECS members to be invited to prepare for an interactive discussion

 

Item 8 Recent relevant developments in Member States

• The Belgian delegate to be invited to present results of the Brussels conference together with the vice-chair of the CDDECS
• The member States are requested to send their recent developments in writing; as a two pages note for circulation (DL 20.4.2015)

 

Item 9  Recent developments concerning some of the relevant CoE conventions and monitoring mechanisms

 

The Secretariat noted that during the last plenary meeting three out of the six monitoring mechanisms of the CoE under the mandate of the CDDECS, namely the Greta, Grevio and Lanzarotte committee were introduced to CDDECS.

 

During discussion it was raised that similar exercise was not wanted for the other three committees, FCNM, ECRML and ECRI. Instead a roundtable discussion with participation from those committees on a specific issue, such as fight against intolerance, intercultural dialogue or other transversal issue would be more interesting.

 

• Bureau members can send proposals on themes to Secretariat (DL 13.3.2015)
• Bureau will decide in written procedure  on the themes
• The Secretariat will organise one hour dialogues with three monitoring bodies and other participants on the selected themes.

 

Item 10   Recent developments in relevant CoE bodies

All relevant CoE bodies will be invited under this standing item to share their recent developments.

 

Item 11  Recent developments in the European Union and/or in International Organisations

• The secretariat will invite to the next plenary for the discussion of current EU activities in the area of equality, non-discrimination and LGTB strategy as a preview to the open consultation process by the Commission to be launched in 2016.
  • Mr Jari Vilen , EU Ambassador to the CoE, and
  • Ms. Salla Saastamoinen Director in charge of Equality in the Directorate-General Justice, European Commission

 

8. OTHER BUSINESS

The Bureau was invited to select a participant to the 54th meeting of the European Steering Committee for Youth (CDEJ) and the 32nd meeting of the Joint Council on Youth (CMJ) taking place at the same time on 13-15 May 2015 in Budapest.

 

• The members will inform the Secretariat if able to participate (DL 28.2.2015).

 

9. DATES OF THE NEXT MEETINGS

• 5th Bureau meeting 22-23 October 2015 in Paris
• 4th CDDECS plenary meeting on 9-11 December 2015 in Strasbourg
  

APPENDIX 1

 

 

 

 

 

DRAFT AGENDA

 

 

 

1. OPENING OF THE MEETING AND ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA

 

 

2. ADOPTION OF THE REPORT OF THE 2nd MEETING OF THE BUREAU

 

 

3. RESULTS OF THE AD HOC WORKING GROUPS’ WORK

 

 

4. PREPARATION OF THE 3rd CDDECS MEETING (Strasbourg, 27-29/05/2015)

 

 

5. REPLY TO THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY RECOMMENDATION 2058 (2014) “SOCIAL EXCLUSION – A DANGER FOR EUROPE’S DEMOCRACIES”

 

 

6. OTHER BUSINESS

 

 

7. DATES OF THE NEXT MEETINGS

 

 

 

 

Appendix 2