The launching meeting of the COE-FRA-ENNHRI-EQUINET Collaborative Platform on Social and Economic Rights is a follow-up activity to the joint conference of the Council of Europe (CoE), the European Network of Equality Bodies (EQUINET), the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI) and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), which took place in Vienna in October 2013. On that occasion, representatives from national, European and international human rights and equality bodies reiterated their commitment to work together to strengthen the protection of human rights in Europe.  It was agreed to focus on establishing four platforms for collaboration on:

·         asylum and migration,

·         Roma integration,

·         combating hate crime,

·         advancing social and economic rights and socio-economic equality.

After the first thematic platform meeting on Rights of Migrants and Asylum Seekers (Vienna, 24 September 2014), followed by the meeting of the Collaborative Platform on Human Rights and Roma Equality (Strasbourg, 30 January 2015), the partner institutions – the Council of Europe, FRA, ENNHRI and Equinet – decided to launch the Collaborative Platform on Social and Economic Rights.

Europe has for several years been facing an unprecedented economic crisis entailing grave social consequences. Certain austerity measures, designed to stimulate recovery, may weaken the protection of economic and social rights, which, in turn, may affect social cohesion and threaten the European social model based on solidarity. In this context, the Council of Europe launched in 2014 the “Turin process” for the European Social Charter realising that respect for fundamental social rights is the best way forward to increase citizens’ participation in democratic processes, to reinforce their trust in European construction and to combat fundamentalism and radicalisation.

The European Social Charter (ESC) is a Council of Europe treaty which guarantees the fundamental freedoms and rights, such as housing, health, education, employment, legal and social protection and movement of persons. A key element of the Charter is the principle of equality and non-discrimination.

The Platform on Social and Economic Rights will provide an opportunity to discuss ways to ensure that the ESC and other international human rights standards relating to economic and social rights are taken into account in the design and implementation of national legislation and practice, and the important role of national and international human rights organisations in monitoring the respect of states’ human rights commitments. The Platform will mainly focus on how to ensure greater use of the relevant human rights norms, in particular the ESC, how to promote wider acceptance and use of the collective complaints procedure, and how to further the adoption of the revised ESC by states still bound by the 1961 Charter.

In accordance with the Joint statement issued at the end of the initial Vienna Conference (7-8 October 2013), the main objective of the Platform on Social and Economic Rights is to help reinforce the effectiveness of the standards for national bodies and contribute to finding responses to fundamental rights challenges in Europe, including coordinated action on regional policies.

The launch event will focus on the development of tools for further co-operation and exchange of information and good practice between the partners concerned. It will define pilot projects that should be initiated to explore and test new ways of inter-institutional collaboration and communication with a view to strengthening the protection of social and economic rights and it will propose concrete cooperation activities, such as training, to raise awareness of the indivisibility of human rights and to address current challenges in promoting and protecting fundamental social rights.

The one-day event will be held in plenary. However, the meeting room is large enough to split into smaller working groups, if necessary.

The working languages will be English and French. 

FRA, EQUINET and ENNHRI will circulate information within their organisations/networks and provide contact details of their participants to Catherine GHERIBI (e-mail [email protected])  who will send invitation letters and arrange travel when necessary.

For any other questions related to this meeting, please contactDanuta WIŚNIEWSKA-CAZALS, DG-I, Department of the European Social Charter, Council of Europe, Agora Building - Office C3.38.V, F-67075 Strasbourg cedex, France
Tel.: + 33 3 88 41 28 51 ; e-mail: [email protected]

Thursday, 15 October 2015

Palais de l’Europe, Room 11

09.00 – 09.30       Registration

Moderator:            Karl-Friedrich Bopp, Head of Division, DG-I, Department of the European Social Charter, Council of Europe

09.30 – 10.00       Opening remarks

Christos Giakoumopoulos, DG-I, Director of Human Rights, Council of Europe

                             Tour de table – introduction of participants

10.00 – 11.30       Presentation of CoE, FRA, Equinet and ENNHRI’s work and plans in the field of social and economic rights

-      Lauri Leppik, General Rapporteur of the European Committee of Social Rights

-      Matylda Pogorzelska, Legal Research Officer, FRA

-      Tamás  Kádár, Senior Policy Officer, Equinet

-      (tbc) ENNHRI

                             Discussion

11.30 – 12.00       Coffee break

12.00 – 13.00       Discussion on the role of each partner organisation and on working methods of the platform

13.00 - 14.30       Lunch break

14.30 – 15.45       Definition of pilot projects to explore and test new ways of inter-institutional collaboration and communication;

Identification of concrete cooperation activities, such training, to address current challenges in raising awareness on the indivisibility of human rights and promoting and protecting fundamental social rights;

15.45 – 16.00       Coffee break

16.00 – 16.30       Consideration of how the Platform could engage with and support the Turin process.

16.30 – 17.00       Wrap-up session and conclusions

Debbie Kohner, Secretary General, Permanent Secretariat,
ENNHRI