SUMMER SESSION

o of the Secretary General’s report on the “State of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Europe – A shared responsibility for democratic security in Europe”, in particular, Chapter III on “Freedom of assembly and freedom of association”, by Adrian Evtuhovici, Head of Division, Platform for the Protection of Journalism, Directorate of Policy Planning;

o of the Council of Europe Action Plan, “The fight against violent extremism and radicalisation leading to terrorism”, by Daniele Cangemi, Special Co-ordinator, Directorate General of Democracy (DGII).

8. Exchange of views with the Permanent Representatives of member States to the Council of Europe on strengthening the role of NGOs at the Council of Europe

The Permanent Representative of Norway to the Council of Europe and Chair of the Ministers’ Deputies’ Rapporteur Group on Democracy (GR-DEM), Ambassador Astrid Helle, thanked the President and the members of the Conference plenary for their invitation.

She said the two sides needed to get to know one another better, by using the existing co-operation channels, even though joint consideration could be given to new forms of communication. Among other things, everybody could find the email addresses of the member states’ various delegations and send them messages. Meetings of Committee of Ministers’ rapporteur groups were confidential and INGOs could therefore not attend them, unless they were invited to provide expert input.

The Council of Europe’s tight budget and the sum allocated to the Conference of INGOs for its annual sessions called for improved knowledge of its work and the value of its contribution to the organisation:

· To date, she had not known much about the Conference’s work;

· She therefore asked the Conference to communicate more effectively with the Committee of Ministers and its subordinate bodies about what it did;

· An annual hearing of the President of the Conference by the GR-DEM would be a priority measure;

· In her view, written resolutions by the Conference’s thematic committees had less impact with the Committee of Ministers than side events held on the margins of meetings (quality being more important than quantity here).

Robert Drzagza, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Deputy Permanent Representative of Poland to the Council of Europe, pointed out that the Conference of INGOs was the fourth pillar of the Council of Europe, and that the organisation needed it to make it better known in and better connected with society. He proposed that the Conference of INGOs hold its plenary meetings on Fridays and regularly invite the ambassadors to exchanges of views on topical issues.

In addition to the representatives of Norway and Poland, the representatives of Ireland, the Netherlands, the Russian Federation and Germany, etc., were present and took the floor. They thanked the President of the Conference for the fresh impetus which she was giving to its work and her desire to step up co-operation with the Committee of Ministers and other Council of Europe bodies.

9. Expert Council on NGO Law

· Appointment of the President of the Expert Council on NGO Law:

o Cyril Ritchie was re-appointed President;

o He reiterated the Expert Council on NGO Law’s monitoring role in ensuring compliance with and the development of NGO law in the individual member states, in liaison with other Council of Europe bodies;

o However, he wished this to be his last presidency of the Expert Council (after 15 years of working for the Conference of INGOs to ensure that democracy and the rule of law were upheld), while being willing to support his successor.

· Presentation of the composition of the Expert Council on NGO Law for the period from July 2015 to June 2018:

o The President of the Expert Council referred to the worrying situation of human rights defenders in Azerbaijan;

o The Conference’s Standing Committee had reaffirmed its political choice in appointing the human rights defender, Intigam Aliyev (who was currently in prison in Baku), to the Expert Council;

o The President of the Conference would notify the President of Azerbaijan of the appointment on the Conference’s behalf.

· Discussion of the changes in legislation and in operating conditions for NGOs in the Russian Federation (Daria Miloslavskaya, member of the Expert Council on NGO Law), given the series of laws on “foreign agents” and “undesirable organisations” in the Russian Federation concerning NGOs allegedly receiving foreign funding:

o The operating ban on certain organisations included in the most recent legislation did not seem to have been applied for the time being;

o The President explained that a letter to the INGOs holding participatory status had been sent on the Conference’s behalf in order to determine the day-to-day impact of these laws on the NGO members of the Conference. She asked the representatives of the INGOs present to pass on any feedback they had had from members who were being prevented from operating by the new legislation.

10. Role and activities of the Council of Europe’s Advisory Council on Youth

Youssef Himmat, member of the Bureau of the Advisory Council on Youth, described the role and operation of the Advisory Council.

Given that few youth organisations were members of the Conference of INGOs, the Conference expressed the desire for the Standing Committee to develop joint activities with the Advisory Council on Youth.

11. To step aside

Two undergraduate students of French and Spanish law, Sophia Benazzouz and Magali Gomis, from the University of Paris-Ouest-Nanterre-La Défense, presented for discussion their research work on the impact of gender as an instrument for measuring radicalisation and extremism.

In their view, analysis of the way the gender issue was addressed in NGOs or other organisations (including on their websites or in any other electronic publications) would make it possible to watch out for radicalisation of the organisation if the discourse and practices explicitly or, indeed, implicitly excluded women or, at least, played down their roles in society.

12. Information on initiatives of the Gender Equality Expert of the Conference of INGOs

Anne Nègre, Gender Equality Expert, expressed satisfaction at the success of the round table held the previous day with the participation of the Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination in connection with the Istanbul Convention and asked all members to continue working with her informally

13. Validation of the Action Plan of the Conference of INGOs for the next two years

· Several INGO representatives congratulated the President of the Conference on this text of a mobilising nature, which set out priorities, guidelines and strategic objectives, as well as working methods, including fact-finding visits to Council of Europe member states

· One INGO representative would have liked to have received the action plan before the Conference plenary so as to obtain formal instructions from her INGO to approve it;

· Results of the vote:

o 89 registered voters, 89 votes cast;

o 88 votes in favour;

o 1 abstention;

o The action plan was accordingly adopted.

· The President of the Conference asked the INGOs to pass on the contact details of national NGOs interested in meeting her during the fact-finding visits she would make to Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania in the autumn.

14. Feedback from the thematic committees and adoption of texts

Presentation of the committees’ action plans and validation of the resolutions presented by the committees:

· “New disability strategy” (1 abstention);

· “The violation of economic, social and cultural rights by austerity measures: a serious threat to democracy” (3 abstentions, 1 vote against).

15. Other business

· Collective complaints procedure under the revised European Social Charter:

o Régis Brillat,Executive Secretary of the European Committee of Social Rights, had emphasised the importance of the European Social Charter collective complaints procedure at the meeting of the Human Rights Committee;

o Under the Turin Process, a training course run by the Conference and the Social Platform in partnership with the Academic Network on the European Social Charter and Social Rights (RACSE) and the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) was being held on the subject in Brussels on 22 September 2015. Any INGOs interested had until mid-July to register;

o INGOs which wished to be entitled to submit collective complaints to the European Committee of Social Rights had to submit their applications by 4 September 2015. Information on how to prepare the application files was available on the Social Charter Department website.

· Update on an ad hoc working group on young people, by Anne Kraus.

· The INGOs would receive the questionnaire for their 2012-2015 four-year report to be completed by the end of the year in order to retain their participatory status.

16. Date of the next meeting

· 28 or 29 January 2016