Council of Europe – Test Yourself

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 in 1951.

The European Court of Human Rights is part of the Council of Europe, and both are based in Strassburg. 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.

All 27 EU member states are also member states of the Council of Europe, because being a member in this organisation - known as the "School of Democracy" - has become one of the preconditions for joining the EU.

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.

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).

Contrary to the United Nations' system, no Council of Europe member state has veto power.
--
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.

The Council of Europe's working languages are English and French, but the European Court of Human Rights accepts applications in any official language spoken in a Council of Europe member state and even handwritten applications are accepted.

Each 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 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.

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

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."

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."

An aerial view of the European Court of Human Rights reveals that the building mimics the scales of justice with the two main court rooms as weighing dishes.
 
 
 

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.

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 European Court of Human Rights is the Council of Europe's most important instrument. As such, it gets less than 1/3 of the organisation's annual ordinary budget 2024 of € 299 million.

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.

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.

Choosing Strassburg as the seat of the Council of Europe in 1949 had a lot of symbolic meaning since the city - as well as the entire French border region of Alsace - perfectly mirrored the turbulent history of the whole continent.

Ever since its foundation in 1949, the Council of Europe has protected and promoted human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
--
The European Union is not an intergovernmental organisation but a supranational union of 27 member states. It is not connected to the Council of Europe, and neither is the European Parliament, which is an EU body.

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.

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 Council of Europe is Europe's oldest and largest intergovernmental organisation for human rights, and the European Court of Human Rights is its most important instrument.
--
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.

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.
--
27 is the number of member states of the European Union; 57 that of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).