The Assembly highlights the necessity for European countries
to work together and take immediate steps to devise and co-ordinate
a comprehensive, whole-of-life standard of support for veterans
and their families, covering mental health, rehabilitation, employment,
education, housing and recognition, as anchored in the European
Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5) and the European Social Charter
(revised) (ETS No. 163, “the revised Charter”). It calls on member
States of the Council of Europe to:
5.1 enact or update legislation defining “veteran” as including
any person who has performed military service in the armed forces
of their country – including military personnel, conscripts, reservists, peacekeepers,
personnel of recognised resistance and territorial-defence formations;
5.2 guarantee a comprehensive minimum support package for
veterans, with formal recognition of their status, designed around
a well-being framework covering physical and mental health, relationships and
recognition, vocation, material security, housing and the physical
environment, and life skills. Such package should include physical
rehabilitation and prosthetics, mental health and suicide prevention, social
protection, access to employment and education/reskilling, housing
assistance, and legal and financial support. It should include a
system of personalised support provided by qualified specialists.
It should also establish a defined recovery period of at least three
years following discharge from military service, during which the
State shall provide enhanced, co-ordinated support for veterans’
physical, psychological, social, professional and everyday-life
recovery;
5.3 introduce national legislation requiring public bodies
to take due account of veterans’ needs in the areas of health, housing,
education and employment;
5.4 establish a single national contact point responsible
for matters relating to veterans, with the power to co-ordinate
between ministries, agencies and public bodies;
5.5 ensure that public registries and data systems track the
multiplicity of statuses that a single veteran may hold simultaneously
– such as veteran, internally displaced person, person with a disability, or
person in difficult life circumstances – so that entitlements are
co-ordinated and the individual is not treated as several separate
cases;
5.6 build a digital, single window service ecosystem incorporating
State and charitable sector organisations and a veterans’ registry;
5.7 earmark dedicated budget lines for mental health and trauma
services, prosthetics and rehabilitation, women veterans, and family
carers, subject to annual parliamentary review;
5.8 facilitate return to work by taking all necessary measures
to eliminate discrimination in employment, recognising military
qualifications for the purposes of obtaining a civilian qualification,
and supporting entrepreneurship and employment amongst veterans
through grants and “veteran-friendly employer” certification;
5.9 ensure the portability of veterans’ rights across member
States of the Council of Europe by establishing agreements between
States, in particular regarding the recognition of disability status, access
to healthcare and transferability of pension rights;
5.10 provide mental health support to veterans and their families
in order to prevent and combat domestic violence;
5.11 provide specialised pathways for former prisoners of war
and survivors of torture, including documentation that can serve
national or international accountability processes;
5.12 strengthen international co-operation, assistance and
exchange of experience in veteran policy;
5.13 support Ukraine, currently absorbing Europe’s largest
veteran cohort, in consolidating its system for veterans across
all levels of government.
