Council of Europe – Test Yourself

The Council of Europe uses English and French as working languages. Interpreters for both languages are present in all the meetings, and documents are also published in both of them.

The European Pharmacopoeia is based on a Council of Europe convention which entered into force in 1964. It includes more than 2’500 quality standards and guidelines and is the most comprehensive set of regulations of its kind in Europe.

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

Since Germany didn't have full sovereignty in foreign affairs after the end of the Second World War, the country was only able to join the Council of Europe as a full member State in 1951.

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).

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

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 part of the Council of Europe, and both are based in Strassburg (France). Luxemburg houses the European Union's Court of Justice (ECJ) as well as the European Court of Auditors. Several bodies of the European Union are based in Brussels. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is based in The Hague.

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.

Every person - regardless of their nationality - can bring a case before the European Court of Human Rights if their human rights have been violated by a member State of the Council of Europe.

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.

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.

One per member State sends one judge to the European Court of Human Rights. These judges, however, do not represent the interests of their country of origin but those of the Court.

The Council of Europe's Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence - that is the Istanbul Convention's official name - is named after the place it was opened for signature in 2014. Turkey has been a member of the Council of Europe since 1949, the organisation's founding year. There is a Council of Europe convention on the protection of archaeological heritage called the Valletta Convention.

The judges are elected by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from a shortlist of three candidates, proposed by each State, for a non-renewable term of nine years.

Democracy and the rule of law are inseparably linked and provide the foundation for all effective human rights protection.

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 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.

The staggering number of applications shows what an important role the Court plays for people all over Europe, and to what extent the Council of Europe's member States have to step up their national human rights protection.

Among the 46 member States of the Council of Europe are countries from the outer edges of the continent, like, for example Turkey or Azerbaijan.
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27 is the number of member States of the European Union; 57 that of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

The founding States of the Council of Europe created the ECHR in order to prevent atrocities like the ones committed during the Second World War from ever happening again and at the same time promote the development of democracy in Europe and thereby bring lasting peace to the continent.

The Council of Europe's European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) entered into force in 1953. This international treaty is the basis of the human rights protection of the whole continent.
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The Lisbon Treaty (2009) regularises the cooperation within the European Union member States. The Rome Statute (1998) is the legal basis of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The Treaty of Rome (1957) established i.a. the European Economic Community (EEC).

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 Council of Europe's European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) prohibits certain acts and guarantees certain rights. Among the latter are the right to life (Article 2) and the right to liberty and security (Article 5).