STANDING COMMITTEE

CONF/SC(2015)SYN4

 

 

Strasbourg, 5 July 2015

 

 

LIST OF DECISIONS

 

FURTHER TO THE MEETING OF MONDAY 22 JUNE 2015

 

 

Present: Michel Aguilar, Jean-Michel Caudron, Jessica Chamba, Anne-Marie Chavanon, Antonina Dashkina, Karl Donert, Claude-Laurent Genty, Gérard Greneron, Oren Gostiaux, Salomon Levy, Thierry Mathieu, Roseline Moreau, Anne Negre, Cyril Ritchie, Maritchu Rall, Sabine Rohmann, Anna Rurka, Didier Schretter, Iamvi Totsi.

 

Apologised for absence: Laura Frati-Gucci, Jean-Marie Heydt (for part of the meeting), Israel Mensah, Michel M. Muller, Annelise Oeschger, Daniel Zielinski.

 

1. Opening of the meeting by the President of the Conference of INGOs

• Jean-Michel Caudron was chosen as meeting rapporteur.

 

2. Agenda [CONF/SC(2015)OJ4]

• Adopted.

 

3. Synopsis of the meeting held on 20 April 2015 [CONF/SC(2015)SYN3]

• Adopted;
• It was agreed that the synopses would be reduced to basic lists of decisions of a maximum of two pages.

 

4. For comments: reports on the activities of the President of the Conference, the Bureau, the chairs of the thematic committees and the Gender Equality Expert since the last Standing Committee meeting:

 

• Only the President of the Conference had stuck to the rule of sending a summary written text to all members as agreed at the Standing Committee’s meeting on 20 April 2015 so that they could have an overview of the work done and contacts made by the various players;

 

• Those mentioned above were asked to submit a summary of their activities to the Standing Committee by email before each of its meetings.

 

5. Election of Conference of INGOs rapporteur

 

• In his report, the Chair of the Verification and Dispute Committee indicated that the election of the last rapporteur would take place as planned.

 

6. Action plan of the Conference of INGOs

 

• All the members of the Standing Committee present congratulated the President of the Conference on producing a strategic document which set out the framework for the Conference’s work for the coming years and could be used to assess the work in the long term;

 

• The longest-standing members of the Conference said that a roadmap of this kind should have been produced much earlier;

 

• The reference texts in the action plan concerned the Conference’s position within Council of Europe bodies, not the substance of the issues addressed by the Conference and its committees;

 

• The Conference action plan was adopted unanimously by acclamation, subject to some changes (including concerning gender equality, see final version of the action plan);

 

• The idea of regularly holding out-of-town seminars which would not have binding agendas and would allow discussion of the issues of concern to the Standing Committee was agreed.  An initial seminar would be held on 26 and 27 September prior to the Standing Committee meeting on 28 September (the exact times and arrangements would be communicated later);

 

• The timetable for the visit to the first countries selected (Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova), in the second half of 2015, would be finalised at the beginning of September.

 

7. Action plans of the thematic committees

 

• All the action plans (consistent with the Conference action plan), which were presented by the individual chairs, were adopted (see individual documents);

 

• Cross-cutting approach: two or three committees could address the same issues, each from its own angle, working in harmony with the other committees in a complementary manner.

 

8. Action plan of the gender equality expert

 

• The participants thanked the expert for her work (see document presented);

 

• The President of the Conference asked committees to involve her in any issues of concern to her in their work, for instance by inviting her to meetings where necessary (as one committee chair had already done).

 

9. Communication strategy of the Conference of INGOs

 

• All participants congratulated Jessica Chamba and Didier Schretter on the proposed communication strategy;

 

• The strategy was adopted (see slide);

 

• A project team co-ordinated by Jessica Chamba and Didier Schretter would be set up in accordance with the arrangements set out in the slide;

 

• It was pointed out that use of new media for communication purposes should not be at the expense of those currently employed, especially since many members were still far from having full command of or even using the new media (the younger or, at least, more “with-it” members of the Standing Committee would have to help the others with the use of the new media, which could be a good means of publicising and gaining recognition for the Conference and its work on a very broad basis);

 

• A Conference communication charter would have to be devised, concerning both graphic codes and drafting rules and also and, above all, the Conference’s communication dissemination strategy (externally, for instance, all communication had to be validated by the President of the Conference, as she represented it);

 

• All INGOs would have to post the link to the Conference website on their websites and include links to the social media on which the Conference was represented (the Conference of INGOs’ new website prepared by the Secretariat would go online on 3 July).

 

10. INGO Service

 

• Presentation of the agendas of the extraordinary and ordinary general meetings of 23 June 2015.

 

11. Other business

 

• Exchange of views with representatives of the Committee of Ministers’ Rapporteur Group on Democracy: the President of the Conference asked the committee chairs to ask the INGOs present at their meetings to put forward questions concerning interaction between INGOs and the Committee of Ministers, as the item was on the agenda for the plenary on Thursday;

 

• Intergovernmental committees: any Conference representative on a Council of Europe intergovernmental committee who was unable to attend the latter’s meeting should designate a substitute (and indicate his/her name and contact details to the Secretariat) so as to avoid the President of the Conference and/or the Secretariat having to find substitutes at the last minute, especially since choices made in haste could be unsuitable;

 

• Conference experts: to facilitate use by rapporteur groups and other Council of Europe bodies, the Standing Committee members requested that the expertise of INGO members (in addition to that of the academic experts) be properly recorded.  The President pointed out that it was up to Standing Committee members to determine the nature of the expertise and to work on what already existed following the process of consultation which the Bureau had initiated with all INGOs;

 

• The Secretariat asked the INGOs regularly to update (in both working languages) their files in the database of INGOs with participatory status.

 

Owing to lack of time, the following items were deferred to the Standing Committee meeting on 24 June 2015:

 

• Standing Committee reaction to the situation of human rights defenders in Azerbaijan;

 

• Revision of the rules on obtaining participatory status for INGOs.