Standing Committee

CONF/SC(2016)SYN3

MEETINGS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE

Tuesday 21 June 2016

Thursday 23 June 2016

Strasbourg, Agora

Preamble

Each member thanked Jutta Gutzkow, Head of the Civil Society Division for 15 years, who has changed post and become Head of the “Good Governance” Division of the Council of Europe.  Eladio Fernández-Galiano, Head of the Council of Europe’ Democratic Initiatives Department, highlighted her great diplomacy.  Anna Rurka congratulated her on her positive attitude vis-à-vis the Conference’s new work approach.  Jutta Gutzkow said that she had been able to fulfil her duties thanks to the involvement and commitment of her team and recalled that she had witnessed different stages of the Conference of INGOs from its creation to its consolidation, during the mandates of Daniel Zielinski, Annelise Oeschger and Jean‑Marie Heydt. She added that significant changes could already be seen after the first half of Anna Rurka’s term of office, in particular, the Conference had become a true platform of political dialogue (for example, through the debates on “Only a matter for politicians? Civil Society, money and political activities” on 6-7 June 2016, and on “migration” on 24 June 2016).  She also underlined the work carried out on the Recommendation on participatory status currently in the validation stage by the relevant Council of Europe bodies.

Jutta Gutzkow has been replaced by Mary-Ann Hennessey, who has been working at the Council of Europe since 1990 (10 years in the education field, followed by 5 years as Director of the Council of Europe Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina).  She wishes to work towards securing recognition of the crucial role of civil society, concentrating specifically on respect for gender equality.  Anna Rurka welcomed her.  Together, they should continue to strengthen the clear and strong position of the Conference, both within and outside the Council of Europe.

For example, the day before the meeting of the Committee of Ministers in Sofia during which the Chairmanship was handed over from Bulgaria to Estonia, Anna Rurka had organised meetings with, amongst others, the Bulgarian NGOs active in the field of migration, and had based her speech on the discussions at those meetings.  However, she had been unable to give her speech owing to a change in the agenda.  Anna Rurka had written a letter of complaint to the outgoing Chairmanship (Bulgaria) and to the current (Estonia) and future (Cyprus) Chairmanships.  She had been given official apologies (Bulgaria).  A promise had been made not to remove the Conference of INGOs from the list of speakers when changing the agenda of the meetings of the Committee of Ministers.

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Present: Michel Aguilar, Jean-Michel Caudron, Anne-Marie Chavanon, Karl Donert, Claude-Laurent Genty, Oren Gostiaux, Anne Kraus, Salomon Levy, Thierry Mathieu, Israël Mensah, Roseline Moreau, Anne Nègre, Cyril Ritchie, Maritchu Rall, Sabine Rohmann, Anna Rurka, Didier Schretter, Lamvi Totsi.

Apologies for absence: Jessica Chamba, Laura Frati-Gucci, Jean-Marie Heydt, Annelise Oeschger, Daniel Zielinski.

1.   Opening of the meeting by Anna Rurka, President of the Conference of INGOs (Israël Mensah, as Vice-President, chaired the meeting from the end of item 4, as the President had to leave).

2.   Agenda: no comments, the agenda was unanimously adopted (Anne Kraus was appointed as rapporteur for the meeting).

3.   List of decisions from the meeting of 25 April 2016 [CONF/SC(2016)SYN2]: unanimously adopted.

4.   Events planned during the session and preparation of the meeting of the Conference of INGOs on 24 June:

· Debate on the treatment of migrants, refugees and NGOs defending their rights: Following the position taken by the Conference on the agreement between the European Union and Turkey, a debate in plenary session, with the participation of the Committee of Ministers, representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Secretariat and the Special Representative of the Secretary General responsible for migration would take place on Friday 24 June.  The debate was an integral part of the interaction between the Conference and the Committee of Ministers and other Council of Europe bodies.

· Side events:

o  Ageing and health: a challenge to public health and social cohesion: a strong need for common action: the population was getting older, health budgets were insufficient.  It was vital to protect the dignity of senior citizens (cf. programme). It was commented that a side event lasting more than half a day should be treated as a substantial separate event.  Such an event of interest to just some of the INGOs should not be organised during the Conference of INGOs’ session week in place of the ordinary meetings of the thematic committees.

o  Are religions a place of emancipation for women? Progress and setbacks: following on from the comments of François Becker (Réseau Européen Eglises et Libertés) and Michel Aguilar, this side event, bringing together the representatives of religions and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, would enable the initial foundations for this issue to be laid.  The discussion would continue at a meeting, the following day, further to the questionnaire sent to INGOs relating to the position of women in religions.

o  Intergenerational Forum – speed dating “Focus on Youth”: as part of the Action Plan of the Conference of INGOs and the development of the youth dimension, this event aimed to promote the building of bridges between the young and less young NGO representatives of different backgrounds.  The objective was to ensure that the voices of young people were heard and their political messages were included in the work of the Conference of INGOs on “Get inspired together to imagine tomorrow”.  During the side event, 24 different initiatives would be presented by the “youth” NGOs and associations.  Representatives of the Advisory Council on Youth, the Youth Department and the No Hate Speech Movement would take part.

o  NB: in view of the diversity of events and extent of the programme, it was essential to find thematic consistency for each session or indeed consider organising such events “off session” and scheduling side events in the annual calendar.  An outline document would enable the INGOs to manage side events with due regard for the common rules.

· Election of a Vice-Chair of the Human Rights Committee (replacing Gérard Gréneron): Two candidatures received and accepted by the Verification and Dispute Committee: Simon Matthijssen (European Ombudsman Institute (EOI) and member of the Expert Council on NGO law) and Aycke O.A. Smook (International Federation of associations for the right to die with dignity (RtDE)).

· Texts for adoption:

o  Adoption of a statement by Thierry Mathieu, co-ordinator of the Working Group on the Economies of Health, following the side event “Ageing and Health: a challenge to public health and social cohesion”.

o  The Human Rights Committee had initially scheduled two documents.  One relating to human rights defenders in the Transnistrian region following the fact-finding visit by the Conference’s President and delegation to the Republic of Moldova the previous autumn (CONF/PLE(2016)REC1). The other had been presented by the European Bar Federation on the protection of electronic judicial data, but this second document was postponed to the programme of the January 2017 session because the federation believed that its document was not sufficiently complete to be presented at this summer session.

· Adoption of the Revised Rules of Procedure of the Conference of INGOs: Salomon Lévy, Chair of the Verification and Dispute Committee, again explained the need to change certain points in the Rules.  He said that because of certain contentious situations in the past, this change was necessary for the smooth operation of the Conference undergoing a transition, and that it was not a matter of targeting anybody in particular. He summarised the various stages of the consultation so far:

o  The modified draft Rules had been debated in the Standing Committee in January 2016.

o  Two to three points had been added to the document following consultation with two independent legal experts and with the Legal Department of the Council of Europe which had led to the harmonisation of four to five articles and thereby avoiding unnecessary contradictions regarding, amongst others, the composition of the Bureau.

o  The amendment procedure had been chosen so that each INGO (including members of the Standing Committee) could give their opinion on the draft document.

o  Amendments had been tabled by various INGOs following that written consultation.

o  Amendments would be put forward during the plenary session and the Conference would be required to vote on each amendment individually.

Claude-Laurent Genty drew attention to the fact that the document submitted to the INGOs had not be re-validated by the Standing Committee following the changes made by the legal experts.  He believed this could prompt the INGOs to react negatively during the plenary session, which could then prevent the validation of these new Rules of Procedure.  A lively debate then ensued regarding whether to vote on the new Rules of Procedure during the June 2016 session.  An immediate vote would have the advantage that the elections of Chairs and Vice-Chairs of the Thematic Committees scheduled for June 2017 could take place on the basis of the revised document, which would provide overall consistency with the Bureau elections in January 2018. As there was no consensus, the Standing Committee decided that the debate on this point would be postponed to the meeting on Thursday, 23 June 2016, attended by the President of the Conference.

5.   Information on the committees’ working groups: creation, closure and follow-up:

· Human Rights Committee:

o  Setting up of two working groups under the Human Rights Committee: Rights of the Child, in order to organise the work of the Conference and its contribution to the Council of Europe strategy on children’s rights, and Human Rights and digital technology.

o  Termination of the Human Rights, migration and co-development working group, which would “cease” following a side event and the presentation of a document during the January 2017 session.

· Education and Culture Committee:

o  The work of the four working groups was ongoing.  The activities and their results would lead to the drafting of a vade mecum.  Objective: to support the NGOs in implementing the new reference framework “Competences for a Democratic Culture”, adopted by the Education Ministers of the Member States of the Council of Europe (Brussels, April 2016), in the context of promoting education (formal and informal) for active democratic citizenship.

· Democracy, Social Cohesion and Global Challenges Committee:

o  No change. The planned merger of certain working groups could not be carried out.

· Requests of the committees: to obtain an updated list with the correct names of the working groups and to receive the Standing Committee’s report before the next meeting by e-mail so that it could be re-read to avoid any omissions.

6.   State of play with regard to the Action Plan of the Conference of INGOs

· Thematic Committees: Besides their specific work, the three committees would work on a joint and transversal project focusing on the vade mecum, to accompany the new reference framework “Competences for a Democratic Culture” to be presented at the June 2017 session and to mark the end of the term of office of the Chairs and Vice-Chairs of the Committees.  A joint meeting would be necessary to re-address the transversal approach.

· Transversal themes:

o  Gender equality: the Gender Equality Expert, Anne Nègre, stressed, amongst other things, the urgent need, in her opinion, for the Conference to be able to adopt a position on surrogacy.  The Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development would be considering a second report on “Human rights and ethical issues related to surrogacy”, rapporteur Petra de Sutter, Belgium. The Standing Committee had decided to consult the INGOs by e-mail based on a preliminary document that would be modified following comments received by the three authors, Michel Aguilar, Thierry Mathieu and Anne Nègre. If the number of contributions received was significant or representative of the various views, the preliminary draft document could be adopted by the Standing Committee on 10 October 2016 and would then be validated by a vote at the January 2017 session.

o  North-South co-operation: Jean-Michel Caudron highlighted (cf. mid-term report distributed at the meeting):

§ the involvement, amongst other things, in the action of the Council of Europe’s European Centre for Global Interdependence and Solidarity (the “North-South Centre”). He had had the following words added to the report of the 2015 Lisbon Forum of the North-South Centre: “Policies to ensure participation and integration of senior citizens can remove some of the causes of alienation and frustration that leave younger generations vulnerable to radicalisation”,

§ a meeting currently being planned, in partnership with the FMDO(Federatie marokkaanse democratische organisaties, INGO under Belgian law) and religious and association leaders of Molenbeek, for the preparation of a positive message on how the people from that town live side by side.

§   The proposal that the North-South Centre organise as part of COP22 (from 10 to 22 November 2016, in Marrakesh) an event on “Population movements, migration and sustainable development”.  There would be a link with Karl Donert of the European Association of Geographers (EUROGEO), who was highly involved in the Conference’s contribution to COP21.

o  Migration: Jean-Michel Caudron said (cf. mid-term report distributed at the meeting), that in addition to planning, organising and moderating the debate on migration at the plenary session of 24 June 2016, he, along with Daniel Guery (Mouvement international d'Apostolat en milieux sociaux indépendants, MIAMSI), had taken an active part in the EUR-OPA (European and Mediterranean Major Hazards Agreement) working group on migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in the context of major risk prevention and management. This had led to the planned publication of several articles written by representatives of the INGOs involved.  One of the consequences of the contribution made by the representatives of the Conference of INGOs was an invitation to jointly organise with EUR-OPA the closing day that would take place in Lisbon on 14 October.

o  Youth: Anne Kraus described in detail (cf. activity report distributed at the meeting) the excellent development of relations with the Council of Europe’s Youth Department.  She confirmed the role of the Conference as a partner in the No Hate Speech Movement (NHSM). She highlighted the publication of activities in “Think Youth!”, which had a high profile on social networks (FB page “Youth & the INGO Conference” with 1,060 Facebook followers and 729  followers on Twitter account “YOUTH@Anne_Kraus_CoE” in less than a year). A substantial number of communication hubs were being created and intergenerational bridges built between associations, organisations, NGOs and non-affiliated young people with a view to setting up a modern discussion platform united by common values “Get inspired together to imagine tomorrow!”.

o  Expert Council on NGO law: Cyril Ritchie, Chair of the Expert Council, highlighted the importance of the Expert Council for INGOs within the Quadrilogue.  One recent example had been the event organised by the Conference of INGOs on 6 and 7 June 2016.  In the debate, the Expert Council had stated its position concerning the planned “lobbying” of the Committee of Ministers, taken part in the President’s visits to Council of Europe member states and provided input to the reports resulting from those visits.

o  World Forum for Democracy – November 2016: following the selection made by the Forum jury, the Lab proposed by the Standing Committee had not been chosen.  However, it had been proposed that Sabine Rohman choose a moderator and a discussant for Lab 15 on digital education, and that Jean-Michel Caudron be moderator for Lab 15, on intercultural education.

10. Information on INGO-Service:

Only 93 INGOs had paid membership fees for 2016 so far.

Reminder of arrangements for reimbursement:

a)    At year end, the Treasurer must receive claims for reimbursement including proof of payment by 10 December.

b)    Reimbursement for representational expenses (intergovernmental committees and meetings at which the Conference was represented) would be made in future only if an information memo on the content of the meeting concerned was sent to the President and the Standing Committee (with due regard for the applicable rules of confidentiality).

Present: Michel Aguilar, Jean-Michel Caudron, Karl Donert, Claude-Laurent Genty, Jean-Marie Heydt, Anne Kraus, Salomon Levy, Roseline Moreau, Anne Nègre, Cyril Ritchie, Maritchu Rall, Sabine Rohmann, Anna Rurka, Didier Schretter, Lamvi Totsi.

Apologies for absence: Jessica Chamba, Anne-Marie Chavanon, Laura Frati-Gucci, Oren Gostiaux, Thierry Mathieu, Israël Mensah, Annelise Oeschger, Daniel Zielinski.

1. Opening of the meetingby Anna Rurka, President of the Conference of INGOs (Jean-Michel Caudron was appointed rapporteur for the meeting).

4. Preparation of the meeting of the Conference of INGOs of 24 June:

• Adoption of the revised Rules of Procedure of the Conference of INGOs:

o   Participants were reminded that, in accordance with the current Rules of Procedure, any modifications to the Rules were to be adopted by the Conference of INGOs, in plenary session, and not by the Standing Committee.

o   The various amendments, sent to the INGOs and members of the Standing Committee, would be put to the vote of the Conference, one by one. The Standing Committee approved this decision, with 14 votes in favour and one against.

7. Compliance with the Communication Charter by the members of the Standing Committee and INGOs in internal communications and with officials and entities of the Council of Europe.

The President informed the members of the Standing Committee of the contacts made with Council of Europe officials by Jean-Pierre Hicheri, member of the Confédération Internationale des Travailleurs Intellectuels (CITI), regarding the project regarding radio coverage of the work of the Conference of INGOs.  The President expressed her opinion that, even though this was a CITI project, it was unacceptable to hold talks with officials and departments of the Council of Europe without consulting the Conference of INGOs or, at least, the Standing Committee.  Some members and, in particular, the Chairs of the Thematic Committees present at the meeting, confirmed that they had not been told that this project existed.

The Standing Committee asked Claude-Laurent Genty, Secretary General of the CITI, to ask their member to cease this project, which was very detrimental to the Conference’s image. Claude-Laurent Genty asked the President of the Conference to send a letter confirming this request, so that his INGO could act accordingly.  He would propose to his Chair that Jean-Pierre Hicheri no longer be a member of the CITI delegation to the Council of Europe. Jean Pierre Hicheri had asked several delegates during the session to take part in interviews with him. Anne-Marie Chavanon had also asked him to do media work for the event organised by the Democracy, Social Cohesion and Global Challenges Committee. Given that Karl Donert, Vice-Chair of that Committee had not been informed and could not give any further explanations, the Standing Committee asked Didier Schretter, the contact person for the Communication Charter, and the President to shed light on Anne-Marie Chavanon’s request and her involvement in the radio project.

8. Freedom of association, assembly and expression in the limelight:

• International conference on freedom of association, the political activities of NGOs, foreign funding (Strasbourg, 6 and 7 June 2016): The Conference of INGOs had successfully organised a debate on 6 and 7 June 2016 at the Palais de l'Europe on the theme “Only a matter for politicians? Civil Society, money and political activities”.  The  concept note, programme, report and reference documents were on the Conference’s website.

9. Information on the representation of the Conference of INGOs and forthcoming meetings of steering committees, intergovernmental committees, committees of the parties and expert committees:

The President of the Conference would send to each member the evaluation report drawn up by the Council of Europe’s Internal Audit Division which related to the participation of NGOs and the Conference in steering committees, intergovernmental committees, committees of the parties and expert committees.  This report would be discussed by the Standing Committee in October.

The very first proposal of the President validated by the Standing Committee was to organise a co-ordination meeting between the representatives of the Conference to learn about the work within the committees and to strengthen its impact on the collective work of the Conference and vice versa, taking account of the Conference Action Plan for the period 2015-2018.  It was also pointed out that the representatives were required, after each meeting, to send either a brief summary report to the President and/or the Standing Committee (using the representation form or free text).  The reimbursement of travel expenses by INGO-Service was subject to this short report being provided (costs were reimbursed by INGO-Service on the basis of the agreement concluded between the association and the Civil Society Division).