Several activities were organised on the occasion of 18 October, European Anti-Trafficking Day.

GRETA published a statement, calling on governments to counter technology-assisted human trafficking and to consider the best interests of victims when designing and using technological tools to combat trafficking in human beings. GRETA is currently finalising a study on online and technology-facilitated trafficking in human beings, based on evidence collected from parties to the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking Convention, civil society organisations and technology companies. The report will provide guidance on preventing, detecting, investigating and prosecuting technology-facilitated human trafficking, as well as international co-operation, co-operation with private companies, and issues related to human rights, ethics and data protection. European Anti-Trafficking Day: Put victims’ rights first when tackling online and technology-facilitated trafficking - News (coe.int)

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a round-table meeting on trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labour exploitation was organised in co-operation with the Ministry of Security and Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nine media outlets covered the event.

In North Macedonia, a panel discussion on proactive identification and referral of child victims of trafficking was organised in co-operation with the Bureau for Development of Education. It served as an introduction to the cascade training sessions on child trafficking prevention, to be delivered in all primary and high schools in North Macedonia.

In Kosovo*, an online conference took place, dedicated to the launch of an awareness-raising campaign. It emphasised the importance of awareness raising and multi-disciplinary actions in preventing trafficking in human beings, and was organised in co-operation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Further, a webinar on gender-sensitive protection measures for trafficking victims, with focus on child trafficking victims, took place in Skopje (North Macedonia) on 14 October 2021. It was co-organised together with the CoE action ROMACTED and targeted local level facilitators and Roma community representatives in 15 municipalities.

"Joining Forces to Promote and Protect the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons" was the title of this year's Annual Seminar that the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) organised for Council of Europe member states' Equality Bodies, in consultation with the European Network of Equality Bodies (Equinet).

Maria Daniella Marouda, Chair of ECRI, Bjørn Berge, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Dunja Mijatović, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, and Helena Dalli, the European Union Commissioner for Equality all emphasised at the opening of the seminar that  combating LGBTI inequality is a shared responsibility and requires joint effort and action at every level – from the international to the local. "No one has special rights, but everyone has equal rights", to use the words of Deputy Secretary General Bjørn Berge, was one of their key messages.

During the seminar, three victims of human rights violations because of their sexual orientation or gender identity shared their stories. Speakers and participants held in-depth discussions about the case law of the European Court of Human Rights on LGBTI issues, the latest LGBTI survey carried out by the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), legislative initiatives in different European countries, preventive action, protection of victims and strategic litigation.

The seminar brought together about 150 participants, including heads and LGBTI focal points of equality bodies and selected national human rights institutions of Council of Europe member states, ECRI members, representatives of umbrella organisations and of key civil society organisations active in the promotion and the protection of the human rights of LGBTI people as well as of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Unit of the Council of Europe.

All background documents related to this event as well as speeches and presentations can be found here.

Opening speeches are also available here:

• Speech by Bjørn Berge, Council of Europe’s Deputy Secretary General
• Speech by Dunja Mijatović, Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights

From 5 to 8 October 2021, the EDQM hosted the virtual annual meeting of the Pharmacopoeial Discussion Group (PDG), an informal harmonisation platform that brings together the European Pharmacopoeia (Ph. Eur.), the Japanese Pharmacopoeia (JP) and the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), with the World Health Organization (WHO) as an observer. Over its 32-year history, the three PDG pharmacopoeias have successfully harmonised and maintained nearly 80 pharmacopoeial texts. Many of these have, de facto, become scientifically robust global standards that are used interchangeably by analysts worldwide, reducing the burden on users to perform analytical procedures in different ways in order to meet region-specific pharmacopoeial requirements.

This meeting provided an opportunity to discuss and agree on strategies for improving engagement with regulatory authorities and other stakeholders, two areas the PDG is looking to enhance. However, this year, the focus was on the recently developed plans to expand PDG membership to other interested world pharmacopoeias, seen as a means of increasing the outreach and impact of the initiative. In preparation for expansion, the founding members of the PDG have spent the past months formulating a set of admission criteria and a framework for membership. The group agreed that expansion should not compromise the successes achieved over the past three decades and that the current PDG model should be adapted, where appropriate, to ensure that it continued to work efficiently. The aim is to launch a 12-month pilot next year to test whether the model, once adapted, remains effective and is able to support the pilot participants to fulfil their commitments.

With a number of pharmacopoeias outside Europe already having expressed an interest in joining the PDG on multiple occasions, the news of this pilot attracted considerable attention, in Europe and beyond. Closer to home, the Ph. Eur. welcomes the possibility of joining forces with other pharmacopoeias.

The EDQM has developed and provides regular updates for CombiStats™, a software application used for the statistical evaluation of biological dilution assays in accordance with chapter 5.3 of the European Pharmacopoeia.

Initially developed for Official Medicines Control Laboratories, CombiStats™ can now be purchased by other laboratories and has evolved into a widely used, internationally recognised reference tool that assists with and contributes to the mutual recognition of data and results

A total of 779 CombiStats™ licences were issued in 2020 across 56 countries worldwide (27 in Europe).

In October 2021, the EDQM held two training sessions, one each for new and advanced users of CombiStats™. In total, there were 320 registered participants from 50 countries comprising member states of the Council of Europe and countries as far away as Argentina, Bangladesh, the Republic of Korea and South Africa. A feedback survey reported that approximately 90% of the participants were very satisfied with the content of the sessions.

Energy systems and climate action cannot be left exclusively to the market. It's urgent to transition to energy democracies that are optimal for both people and planet. How can public ownership, community control and participatory governance ensure that justice is served? And which forms of collective action will help us get there?

In this webinar we dived into the biggest challenges to a renewable energy future and best practices from across Europe, South Africa and the Americas. A set of excellent speakers equipped participants with concrete handles for building system-wide people power to ensure that those on the frontlines of the climate crisis are the ones driving the energy transition.

More information available here.

GRETA carried out a visit to Latvia as part of the third evaluation round of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, on 11-12 October 2021. During the visit, GRETA held meetings with the State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Mr Dimitrijs Trofimovs, the National Anti-Trafficking Co-ordinator, Ms Agnese Zile-Veisberga, as well as officials from the State Police, the State Border Guard, the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, the Legal Aid Service, the State Labour Inspectorate, the Specialised Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime, and judges from Riga Regional Court. Separate meetings were held with representatives of civil society. 

On 20 October, GRETA published its third report on the United Kingdom, which was covered by a number of media outlets. The report urges the United Kingdom to take further steps to improve the identification of trafficking victims, to make sure victims receive legal and psychological assistance and to ensure that more traffickers are convicted. 

Tampere City and CEB sign loan agreement to improve municipal services

The €60 million loan will finance the construction, restoration and extension of municipal infrastructure in the City of Tampere, Finland. In light of the negative impact of COVID-19 on municipal finances, the new loan will provide the necessary boost to public investments and allow the city authorities to focus on sustainable reconstruction. It will also help Tampere to deal with the recent population growth and demographic changes. During the last five years, the city has gained 12,000 additional inhabitants, many of them with a migrant background.

Journalists representing different regional TV channels, online and print media of Armenia discussed the principles of media reporting on violence against women and domestic violence in a three-day online training seminar. The seminar addressed how media can help raise awareness about violence against women and domestic violence. It addressed sensitive interviewing techniques; how to use background information and statistics to present violence against women as a societal problem rather than as an individual personal tragedy; facts and reality vs. myths and stereotypes; and relevant national legislation, policies and practices, as well as international instruments, in particular the Istanbul Convention.

The training was organised within the framework of the Council of Europe project “Path towards Armenia’s ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence” in partnership with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of Armenia.

Guideline on gender equality and violence against women for Armenian journalists and media workers

On 23 October the city of Bilbao and the Intercultural Cities programme launched the first intercultural guided tour within the frame of the “Diversitours” project. Designed in a participatory manner, Diversitours aims to develop alternative and positive narratives about diversity, and foster an open attitude towards migration as a resource. Under the guide of previously trained neighbours, the visitors are brought closer to places and experiences brimming with life and activity that are not often proposed in urban guided tours. With this programme, "we aim to empower people who are committed to an open, critical, inclusive and intercultural citizenship; it aims to contribute to the fight against negative stereotypes, hate speech and the global rise of extremism", explained City Councillor Itziar Urtasun who attended the first visit. The next Diversitours visits will take place on 30 October (fully booked) and 6 November.

On 21 October 2021, the Children’s Rights Division hosted an online high-level conference on “Progress towards meaningful child participation in decision making – a multi-stakeholder dialogue” organised in the framework of the European Union and Council of Europe joint project “CP4Europe – Strengthening National Child Participation Frameworks and Action in Europe”.

The event brought together over 115 high-level representatives of national authorities and institutions, members of international organisations, civil society, as well as child participation experts and academics, in dialogue with children. It allowed participants to reflect constructively on how to make theoretical concepts of child participation work in practice, directly in collaboration with children.

On 25 October 2021, a Council of Europe coordination meeting on EEA/Norway Grants programmes took place to take stock on programme implementation issues and to discuss upcoming events in 2021-2022. The Children’s Rights division presented the progress made in Barnahus-related projects in Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia.

On 27 October 2021, the Council of Europe project “Combating Violence Against Children in the Republic of Moldova”, organised an online workshop to present the Committee of Ministers Recommendations -  Guidelines to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of the child in the digital environment. The purpose of the workshop was to sensitise decision and policy makers in Ukraine on the provisions of the Recommendations, which aim to assist member states in their efforts to adopt a comprehensive, strategic approach to building and containing the complex world of the digital environment.

On 28 October 2021, the Council of Europe project “Combating Violence against children in Ukraine” brought together 50 representatives of the civil society organisations in Ukraine to an online workshop aimed to Strengthen civil society participation in the implementation and monitoring of the Lanzarote Convention. The workshop provided the participants with substantive expertise on the implementation of the Lanzarote Convention in Ukraine, enabling them to contribute to the monitoring and review processes. Best practices on protection and awareness programmes of various NGO’s on the topic of child sexual abuse and exploitation were also shared with the participants.

On 29 October 2021, in the framework of the European Union and Council of Europe joint project “Ensuring child-friendly justice through the effective operation of the Barnahus-units in Finland”, a working consultation meeting with staff from the 5 Barnahus-units in the country took place to discuss needs, challenges and opportunities. The meeting findings will feed into the project’s inception report to be presented at the kick-off meeting on 25 of November 2021.

On 21 October 2021, the Children’s Rights Division presented the Council of Europe guidelines and instruments on child-friendly justice to a group of Bulgarian legal professionals in the framework of an online study visit organised by the Bulgarian National Institute of Justice in cooperation with the Gender Equality Division of the Council of Europe. The information shared during the study visit will contribute to the development of a case management Guide for the Judiciary on domestic violence and gender-based violence against women, to be published in 2022.

“A new protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights on the right to a healthy environment is in your hands”. This was the message Spyros Papadatos, Bureau member of the Advisory Council on Youth, gave to the Presidents of the Parliaments of the 47 Council of Europe member states on 21 October 2021 in Athens, on the occasion of a conference organised by the Hellenic Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

Speaking in a session on #EnvironmentRightNow: national parliaments and the right to a healthy and sustainable environment, Spyros Papadatos was one of three keynote speakers alongside the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, Kakha Kuchava and the Speaker of the Parliament of Finland Anu Vehviläinen.

Quoting the declaration issued by the Georgian presidency of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers in 2020, Spyros Papadatos underlined that the fact that the climate crisis is also a human rights crisis is something we still fail to fully comprehend and accept.

Spyros Papadatos recommended Parliaments implement sustainability within their internal working structures and practices, quoting the youth sector’s sustainability checklist which aims to ensure that it practices what it preaches.

He concluded his speech by calling on national parliaments and decisionmakers to create structures, similar to the Council of Europe youth sector’s co-managed structure, in order to consult young people in any decision on the environment and the climate crisis.

The youth statutory bodies met online for the last time in the 2020-21 biennium on 11-13 October 2021. A time for assessing implementation of the Youth for Democracy Programme, but also for taking decisions for the youth sector’s future work.

The Joint Council on Youth (CMJ)  took stock of the progress made thus far in implementing the Youth sector strategy 2030 by examining this year’s activities, in particular with regard to:

• the conclusions and recommendations of the review process of the implementation of Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)7 on young people’s access rights;
• the recommendations of the task force on “greening the youth sector”;
• the conclusions of the working group on the European Youth Work Agenda;
• the conclusions of the working group on the situation of rural youth.
•  

Looking forward, the Joint Council on Youth (CMJ) did:

• agree to organise a youth sector campaign in 2022, working title “Youth for democracy, democracy for youth, a campaign for revitalising democracy”;
• exchange views on measures to support young people in the post-pandemic era;
• examine and approve a draft Committee of Ministers recommendation on protecting youth civil society and young people, and supporting their participation in democratic processes;
• approve the proposals for focus themes for pilot activities to be supported by the European Youth Foundation in 2022.

 The Joint Council members exchanged views with the Director General of Democracy, Snežana Samardžić-Marković, when she joined the meeting on 12 October.

In cooperation with Aġenzija Żgħażagħ, the National Youth Agency of Malta, the EYF delivered an in-country information session in Malta, 19-20 October. The objectives of the sessions were to raise awareness among youth NGOs in Malta about the EYF and its grant programmes, and to inform the Agenzija Zghazagh about the EYF’s requirements, so they can provide ongoing support to potential applicant NGOs.

The two days session was attended by 12 Maltese youth NGOs, bilateral meetings were held with 5 NGOs. In addition, the EYF and Agenzija Zghazagh discussed how the agency can support the implementation of the 2022 youth campaign for revitalising democracy and how EYF funding can be used to support the process in Malta, in line with the thematic timeline of the campaign.

Representatives of the national recognition centres of all 12 countries currently participating in the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees (EQPR), as well as the UNHCR, attended the eighth Project Coordination Group meeting on 18 October. Participants warmly welcomed the participation of Serbia’s national recognition centre as the 12th centre to have joined and discussed the current status of activities and the way forward. Among recent developments, the meeting highlighted the piloting of the EQPR online platform and the design of a specialised training course for evaluators.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had serious consequences on the education of young people and their ability to engage and participate meaningfully. In 2020, the Council of Europe and UNESCO decided to collaborate on a research project with a view to examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student voice and particularly the consequences of the subsequent school closures on student voice opportunities in Europe and in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The joint publication now available details the findings of this study and provides recommendations for school directors and personnel, teachers, educators, policy-makers and young people.

The mandate of the OHTE Scientific Advisory Council (SAC) is well and truly underway, as the members attended their third meeting to discuss the methodology for the reports. The Regular Report will provide a unique longitudinal study on history education in Europe. Areas of study proposed included historical culture, the training of history teachers, and how civil society organisations impact on public debates on history education. The Thematic Report will examine how pandemics and natural disasters are taught, for example by analysing the scapegoating of minorities and other marginal groups and to understand the lessons we have learned as a society during these crises.

European Heritage Days are still being celebrated in the Russian Federation, Spain and Turkey. The celebrations around the shared theme for 2021 “Heritage: All Inclusive” started back in mid-August and will continue until early November. Tens of thousands of events promoting diversity and inclusiveness have already been organised – see the website:  www.europeanheritagedays.com.

To read about more experiences from the events, follow EHD Instagram account and hashtag #EuropeanHeritageDays. 

The European Heritage Strategy for the 21st century aims to promote a unifying approach to cultural heritage as a resource for democracy. The new ST21 MooC (Massive Open Online Course) helps to address some of the challenges related to social cohesion, economic and territorial development, as well as education and knowledge. It provides heritage managers at local/regional/national levels with the knowledge and skills to implement the Strategy’s recommendations, and guides participants in the analysis of their heritage related projects and activities to become part of the Strategy 21 good practices and networks. It has been designed, through its 10 Modules and supporting material, to adapt fully to people’s needs - be it a training session, a consultation, a self-evaluation or a one-on-one coaching session.

In the framework of the Council of Europe/European Union Joint project “The Faro Way: enhanced participation in cultural heritage”, the Council of Europe, the National Institute of Heritage of Romania and the Romanian Ministry of Culture jointly organised a high-level meeting “Faro Convention: from words to action” on 14 and 15 October in Bucharest, Romania.

The event was the last of four regional seminars organised in the framework of this Joint project, aimed at promoting and disseminating the principles of the Council of Europe’s Faro Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society and encouraging its signature, ratification and implementation in member States. It brought together about 75 participants, both online and in person, including representatives of Ministries in charge of culture and heritage from the Council of Europe and the European Union member States - with special focus on South-East Europe -, heritage communities and other local, regional and national stakeholders in culture and heritage fields.

The meeting focused on sharing good practices from member States, as well as from heritage communities and civil society initiatives from Romania and beyond, on how the Faro Convention principles are applied. These good examples highlighted the added value for member States in adopting the Convention principles in the management of their cultural heritage. At the end of the meeting, the Romanian Secretary of State for Culture expressed a clear commitment to pursuing their work towards the adoption of the Faro Convention.

The €20,000 Eurimages Co-production Development Award presented last week at the Cinekid Festival in Amsterdam was awarded to the project I ACCIDENTALLY WROTE A BOOK by Nora Lakos, to be produced by Claudia Sumeghy from the company Juno11 Productions in Hungary. The unanimous decision of the jury, composed of Charlotte Henskens, Stian Tveiten and Karin Schockweiler for Eurimages, was motivated by the desire to encourage the filmmaker to further develop the story into a visually and emotionally engaging film, accessible to a young audience.

The next Eurimages Co-production Development Award will be presented during TorinoFilmLab on 29 November - 1 December 2021.

The final analysis of the high number of film co-production projects submitted at the last call for projects of 2021 was completed on 13 October. The Secretariat is now actively preparing the 164th plenary meeting of the Board of Management, which will be held once again online on 9 December with interpretation via the KUDO software and digital voting. Co-production projects will be examined by online working groups composed of national delegations from 30 November to 8 December and other thematic Working Groups will meet during the week starting 22 November. 

The ECML hosted a webinar entitled “A Roadmap for supporting the Language(s) of Schooling” attracting around 200 participants. The moderators introduced the Roadmap as a web-based, user-friendly resource for creating a strategic whole-school development plan which fosters inclusion and provides concrete guidance on how to advance learners’ competences in the language(s) of schooling. The participants of the webinar were informed that the ECML offers support in member states for implementing the Roadmap in collaboration with representatives of schools in the context of ECML training and consultancy.

The Secretariat continued to prepare the EUR-OPA’s Ministerial Meeting to be held on 24 November in Matosinhos, Portugal and the European forum on Disaster Risk Reduction (24-26 November) co-organized jointly with UNDRR and the DG ECHO. To that end the Executive Secretary participated in the preparatory meeting on 22 October 2021.

On 13 October, the Executive Secretary participated in the FAO-UNDRR event on “International cooperation for disaster risk reduction in agri-food systems", organized to mark the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction.

In addition, the Executive Secretary met with the Permanent Correspondents in respect of Belgium (in person) and the Slovak Republic (by video-link) to discuss the Ministerial Meeting and perspective for development of activities in cooperation with these States.

20 October 2021: Fifth International Landscape Day of the Council of Europe

The “Message from Palma de Mallorca”, on the theme of the 25th Council of Europe Meeting of the Workshops for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention "Landscape policies! Strategies, action plans and policy documents for landscape quality" (Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 6-8 October 2021), invites public authorities to adopt landscape policies, at national, regional and local level, in accordance with the provisions of the Council of Europe Landscape Convention.

See more:

Council of Europe Landscape Convention

Texts of reference

Information System

Information Platform

The Landscape Award Alliance of the Council of Europe

Leaflet on the landscape approach

Website of the Convention

The launch event for the 3rd edition of "Compasito - Manual for Human Rights Education with Children" was organised by the Youth Department of the Council of Europe in the context of the Hungarian Presidency of the Committee of Ministers on 20 October 2021 at the European Youth Centre Budapest.

The panel discussion ‘’The role of human rights education in promoting children’s rights’’ engaged participants at the EYCB and all over Europe through the live stream. Dr. Mária Herczog (Family, Child, Youth Association, Hungary), Dr. Liza Bukor (Department for Equal Opportunities and Children’s Rights, Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, Hungary), Tinna Rós Steinsdóttir (Office of the Ombudsperson for Children, Iceland), and Adam Lambe (Irish Secondary Students' Union (ISSU), Ireland) engaged in debate which was as challenging as it was motivating for the listeners.