Civil society and the Parliamentary Assembly: towards greater transparency and engagement
Recommendation 2287
(2024)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Text
adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of
the Assembly, on 29 November 2024 (see Doc. 16067, report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human
Rights, rapporteur: Ms Azadeh Rojhan)
1. Referring to its
Resolution 2579 (2024) “Civil
society and the Parliamentary Assembly: towards greater transparency
and engagement”, the Parliamentary Assembly welcomes the strong
endorsement of the role of civil society contained in the Reykjavik
Declaration, which was adopted at the 4th Summit of Heads of State and
Government of the Council of Europe (16-17 May 2023). The Assembly
also welcomes the call by the heads of State and government for
a review and for the further reinforcement of the Organisation’s
outreach to, and meaningful engagement with, civil society organisations
and national human rights institutions. The Assembly informs the
Committee of Ministers of its intention to play a leading role in
this context, by reviewing and further reinforcing its own outreach
to, and meaningful engagement with, these groups, while ensuring
that this engagement is transparent.
2. The Assembly also welcomes the “Secretary General’s Roadmap
on the Council of Europe’s Engagement with Civil Society 2024-2027”
as a positive step in the follow-up to the Reykjavik Declaration.
3. The Assembly intends to ensure that the work of all interest
representatives who engage with the Assembly is covered by a code
of conduct. The Assembly further notes that the road map envisages
the preparation of a “single, harmonised code of conduct for the
Organisation’s engagement with civil society”. The Assembly recognises
the benefit of such a code of conduct and, moreover, the importance
for any code of conduct to regulate the work of interest representatives
as a whole (including lobbyists for commercial interests), rather
than being limited to civil society.
4. Finally, the Assembly welcomes the proposals contained in
the road map for practical measures to reinforce the Organisation’s
outreach to, and meaningful engagement with, civil society. The
Assembly further welcomes the Committee of Ministers’ decision of
13 December 2023, which instructs the Secretariat to prepare an
implementation plan for the meaningful participation of civil society,
to be presented to the Committee of Ministers by the end of 2024.
