on
restrictions on NGO activities in Council of Europe member States,
the Parliamentary Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers:
1.1 fully implement its decision
“A shared responsibility for democratic security in Europe – The
need to strengthen the protection and promotion of civil society
space in Europe”, adopted at its 129th session, in Helsinki on 17
May 2019;
1.2 call on the member States to implement its recommendations
CM/Rec(2007)14 on the legal status of non-governmental organisations
in Europe and CM/Rec(2018)11 on the need to strengthen the protection
and promotion of civil society space in Europe;
1.3 take stock of the progress achieved in implementing these
two recommendations;
1.4 organise regular exchanges of views with non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) working in the field of human rights protection
and facilitate these organisations’ access to information on the
Council of Europe’s activities and to events that it organises;
1.5 continue to strengthen synergies between all the stakeholders
concerned within the Council of Europe, in particular the Secretary
General, the Commissioner for Human Rights, the Conference of International
Non-Governmental Organisations, the Assembly and, where appropriate,
relevant expert bodies, and establish a working group composed of
representatives of these entities;
1.6 give priority to judgments arising from systemic problems
concerning the rights and freedoms of NGOs embodied in Article 11
of the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5, the Convention)
when supervising the execution of judgments of the European Court
of Human Rights;
1.7 establish an alert mechanism for receiving warnings of
possible new restrictions on the right to freedom of association
and other rights and freedoms of NGOs embodied in the Convention
in member States, and for assessing this information and responding
accordingly;
1.8 continue to promote European and international standards
to protect civil society space and exchange information on good
practices in this area, particularly in co-operation with other
international organisations such as the United Nations, the Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the European Union.
