Council of Europe – Test Yourself

The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is a binding treaty between all 46 Council of Europe member States. Violations of the treaty can be brought before the European Court of Human Rights.

The Council of Europe is an intergovernmental organisation; therefore, its members are states.

The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) consists of democratically elected members of each member State's national parliament.
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The European Parliament and the European Commission are both bodies of the European Union. They are not connected to the Council of Europe.

The annual contribution of each member State towards the ordinary budget of the Council of Europe is based on a formula that takes into account population and gross domestic product. On top of that, the member states are free to fund particular projects via voluntary contributions.

Convinced, that Europe was in need of a uniting symbol, the Council of Europe adopted the European flag in 1955. In 1985, a predecessor organisation of today's European Union (EU) adopted the flag as well.

All 27 member States of the European Union (EU) are members of the Council of Europe as well and have signed the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

1972, Herbert von Karajan arranged three different instrumental versions of the main theme from the last movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 as a European anthem for the Council of Europe. In 1985, a predecessor organisation of today's European Union (EU) adopted the anthem as well.

Cases can only be brought before the European Court of Human Rights after all domestic remedies have been exhausted, i.e. when the highest domestic court has delivered a judgment.

The Council of Europe is not only the continents largest but also its oldest intergovernmental organisation for human rights. 1973 is the founding year of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE); 1993 that of the European Union in its current form.

Churchill's speech at the University of Zurich in 1946 was considered ground-breaking for the further development of a united Europe: "Our constant aim must be to build and fortify the strength of the United Nations Organization. Under and within that world concept we must re-create the European Family in a regional structure called, it may be, the United States of Europe. And the first practical step would be to form a Council of Europe."

The European Court of Human Rights is a specialised court. It judges cases where a member state of the Council of Europe has violated the human rights of either a person or another member State.

The "Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms" - that's the European Convention on Human Rights' official name - was adopted by the member States of the Council of Europe in 1950 and entered into force in 1953.

All 47 member States of the Council of Europe have signed the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)

The Russian Federation was expelled from the Council of Europe with immediate effect in March 2022 after 26 years of membership, due to its war on Ukraine - an unprecedented event in the organisation's long history.

The military junta in Greece (1967-1974) pre-empted expulsion in 1969 by withdrawing from membership. Turkey was temporarily deprived of its voting rights in the Parliamentary Assembly after the military coup in 1980.

Contrary to the United Nations' system, no Council of Europe member State has veto power.
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The ten founding members are: Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The four largest financial contributors are: Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

In 1951, Germany's chancellor and foreign minister Adenauer said in a speech at the Council of Europe: "It is of great significance for the political development of Europe that here, in the organs of the Council of Europe, we have a platform on which the representatives of Europe meet regularly, discuss their worries and anxieties, their desires and their hopes, a platform where they try to establish common criteria for evaluating their requirements, and where, in general, they co-operate with one another in a spirit of fairness and of good neighbourliness. In other words, here we find an expression of the European conscience."

The Council of Europe is Europe's oldest and largest intergovernmental organisation for human rights, and the European Court of Human Rights is its best known instrument.
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The European Union (EU) is a supranational union of states, and the European Council and the European Commission are bodies of the European Union. None of them are connected to the Council of Europe.

Founded in 1949, the Council of Europe is not only the largest but also the oldest intergovernmental organisation for human rights in Europe.
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The European Parliament is not connected to the Council of Europe: it is one of the European Union's two legislative bodies.

The Venice Commission's official name is "European Commission for Democracy through Law". It was created by the Council of Europe in 1990 to provide emergency constitutional aid to Eastern European states in transition. Today, the Venice Commission - who is named after the Italian city where it holds its plenary meetings - is one of Europe’s leading advisory bodies for legal and constitutional matters.

The Committee of Ministers is comprised of the Foreign Ministers of the 47 member States of the Council of Europe. They meet once a year for a plenary session and are represented in Strassburg by their delegates (ambassadors) during the rest of the year.
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Both, the European Commission and the European Council are bodies of the European Union (EU). The Council of Ministers is an unofficial term for the Council of the European Union, a legislative body of the EU. None of these bodies are connected to the Council of Europe.

The Council of Europe's European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) guarantees certain rights and prohibits certain acts. Among the latter are torture (Article 3) as well as slavery & forced labour (Article 4).

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights - also called UN Human Rights Charter - is the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled.

The United States' Declaration of Independence is a political document which contains human rights.

The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen with its demands for liberty, equality and fraternity was the first human rights declaration in Europe.

The Magna Carta is considered a cornerstone of the British constitution.

The European Court of Human Rights is a specialised court, created by the Council of Europe in order to judge cases of violations of human rights, as they are set out in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
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The European Union's highest tribunal, the Court of Justice (ECJ), is based in Luxemburg and is not connected to the Council of Europe. Neither is the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is based in The Hague.

By joining the Council of Europe, member States accept the terms stipulated in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and put themselves under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.