Monitoring of commitments concerning social rights
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate
on 28 January 2011 (9th Sitting) (see Doc. 12441, report of the Social,
Health and Family Affairs Committee, rapporteur: Mr Marquet; and Doc. 12502, opinion
of the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, rapporteur:
Mrs Keleş). Text adopted by the Assembly on 28 January 2011 (9th
Sitting). See also Recommendation 1958 (2011).
- Thesaurus
1. The Parliamentary Assembly is convinced
that in the present context marked by the economic crisis and ongoing
globalisation it is all the more important to defend social rights
against the manifold threats they are facing. It considers that
a binding instrument such as the European Social Charter, opened
for signature in 1961 (ETS No. 35) and revised in 1996 (ETS No.
163), remains a highly significant instrument in this regard for
stimulating national legislative processes, which complements various
policy measures taken at European and national level.
2. The Assembly refers to its
Resolution 1559 (2007) on Europe’s
social dimension: full implementation of the revised European Social
Charter and evaluation of new labour regulations and minimum wages
and its
Recommendation
1795 (2007) on the monitoring of commitments concerning
social rights. It welcomes the member states’ strong support for
the Social Charter, as illustrated by the high number of ratifications
of its various treaties. Despite the progress made in this field
in recent years, the Assembly considers that the promotion of this
instrument should continue just as vigorously at all levels. The
main objectives of such a commitment should be to increase the implementation
of social rights, to make the prescribed collective complaints procedures
more accessible, to place the monitoring machinery on a more democratic
footing and to ensure acceptance by states of further provisions
of the Charter.
3. The Assembly considers the present period especially favourable
for taking stock of the implementation of the Social Charter and
its monitoring mechanisms, and for reviewing the Assembly’s role
in relation to them. The 50th anniversary of the 1961 European Social
Charter and the 15th anniversary of the revised European Social
Charter, to be celebrated in Strasbourg on 18 October 2011, will
be preceded by a series of conferences to prepare for strategic
decisions concerning the Social Charter and the mechanisms linked
to it. Thus, 2011 is the ideal year to highlight the indivisibility
of social rights and civil and political rights, the importance
of the European Social Charter for defending this corpus of rights,
and an enhanced role for the Assembly in the Charter’s monitoring
machinery.
4. The Assembly invites the Council of Europe member states to:
4.1 continue promoting, at European
and national level, the signature, ratification and implementation of
the European Social Charter, and specifically its Amending Protocol
of 1991 (ETS No. 142) (known as the “Turin Protocol”) and its Additional
Protocol of 1995 (ETS No. 158) Providing for a System of Collective
Complaints;
4.2 ratify the revised European Social Charter or, where they
still abide by the 1961 Charter, the Turin Protocol, if they have
not already done so, in order that all provisions of the Social
Charter may take full effect, including the election of the 15 members
of the European Committee of Social Rights by the Assembly;
4.3 support before the Committee of Ministers the idea of
enhancing the Assembly’s role in the Charter’s monitoring mechanisms;
4.4 promote knowledge of the revised European Social Charter
amongst social partners and non- governmental organisations, including
women’s associations, by supporting the organisation of an international
conference and the publication of information material, and further
encourage the recourse to the collective complaints procedure by
those entitled to use it.
5. The Assembly notably invites its members and every national
delegation to make the promotion of the Social Charter in their
respective countries a priority. In particular, the Assembly calls
on them to speak in favour of the acceptance of the collective complaints
procedure with a view to promoting the fullest possible implementation
of the Charter by member states.
6. In the light of the current situation regarding the European
Social Charter, and in order to make a substantial contribution
to its ongoing promotion, the Assembly further decides to:
6.1 schedule joint debates on the
situation of social rights and on the state of human rights every
two years, the next occasion being in June 2011 during the Assembly’s
third part-session;
6.2 undertake political monitoring of the implementation of
the European Social Charter and of social rights, fully taking into
account gender mainstreaming, in close collaboration with the European Committee
of Social Rights and other international organisations, in particular
the International Labour Organization and the European Union organs;
6.3 promote, within the Council of Europe and among its external
partners, a broad-based approach to social rights as an integral
and indivisible part of human rights;
6.4 promote, with the Committee of Ministers and other relevant
Council of Europe bodies, a revision of the collective complaints
procedure according to the Additional Protocol of 1995 to the Social
Charter, which would allow for third party interventions, including
by the Assembly, and envisage intervening in such a capacity where
appropriate.
