The 65th anniversary of the European Social Charter: social rights as the foundation of resilient democracies and social justice
Recommendation 2304
(2026)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly
debate on 29 January 2026 (8th sitting) (see Doc. 16335, report of the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and
Sustainable Development, rapporteur: Mr Paul Galles). Text adopted by the Assembly on
29 January 2026 (8th sitting).
2. The Assembly welcomes the Protocol amending the European Social
Charter (ETS No. 142, “Turin Protocol”) and the reforms set in motion
by the Committee of Ministers since 2022 to improve the effectiveness, clarity
and impact of the system of the European Social Charter (ETS No. 35,
“the Charter”).
3. The Assembly emphasises that in the context of unprecedented
pressure on democracies, social and economic rights must be one
of the priority areas to address, including in the context of the
work around the New Democratic Pact for Europe (“the Pact”), and
that the Charter is one of the main pillars of democratic stability
and security. It invites the Committee of Ministers to keep this
central dimension at the forefront in its decisions and priorities
concerning the Pact and the Charter.
4. The year 2026 marks the 65th anniversary of the original Charter
and the 30th anniversary of its revised version (European Social
Charter (revised), ETS No. 163, “the revised Charter”). The Assembly
considers therefore that this year marks a unique opportunity and
high point in the work to promote social rights. It invites the
Committee of Ministers to put in place a range of initiatives to
translate this undertaking into practice and to:
4.1 initiate and facilitate a programme
of activities and exchanges around the Charter including debates,
conferences and campaigns, by involving in this work civil society
– especially young people – and social partners, in order to raise
the Charter’s profile and promote its effective implementation;
4.2 promote and expedite, with the relevant ministries, the
ratification of the revised Charter and the Additional Protocol
to the European Social Charter Providing for a System of Collective
Complaints (ETS No. 158, “Collective Complaints Protocol”);
4.3 with regard to the election by the Assembly of the members
of the European Committee of Social Rights, which is the only provision
of the Turin Protocol which is not applied, adopt a unanimous decision to
this effect pending further progress on the ratification by member
States of the Turin Protocol;
4.4 reflect upon and incorporate the political impetus given
by this anniversary year in the future priorities of the Council
of Europe Programme and Budget.
5. The Assembly considers it particularly important for the right
to a healthy environment to be recognised in a legally binding instrument
as part of the efforts to promote social cohesion, democratic stability,
social equality and justice. One of the options the Assembly would
support is for the revised Charter to be complemented by an additional
protocol specifically establishing the right to a healthy environment.
6. Despite years of work by the Steering Committee for Human
Rights (CDDH), as a result of which it was able to present its study
on the need for and feasibility of a further instrument or instruments
in the field of human rights and the environment and the positive
example provided by several member States – Andorra, France, Iceland,
Luxembourg, Monaco, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain – the Committee
of Ministers, meeting in Luxembourg for the ministerial session
of 14 May 2025, avoided the heart of the matter. This failure to
act lies in stark contrast with the undertakings made in the Reykjavik
Declaration, through which member States recognised the imperative
need to strengthen the protection of human rights in the context
of the environment. The result is that Europe is still the only
continent which does not have a regional legal framework safeguarding the
right to a healthy environment.
7. The Assembly is particularly keen to remove all clauses from
the Council of Europe’s human rights treaties which, like Article
34 of the Charter and Article L of the revised Charter, enable States
parties not to apply the treaty to all their territory. These clauses
are incompatible with the norms provided for by the Vienna Convention
on the Law of Treaties of 23 May 1969 and mean that the excluded
territories are subject to different human rights standards.
8. In the same way, the Assembly recalls that the Charter and
the revised Charter apply only to nationals of a State party and
to foreigners who are legally resident or regularly employed in
the territory of the State party in which they are present. This
restriction is also at variance with the universality of human rights
upheld by the Council of Europe.
9. In the light of all these areas for improvement, the Assembly
urges the Committee of Ministers to use the occasion of the ministerial
session in Chișinău in May 2026 to instruct the CDDH to draw up
a feasibility study on a revision of the material, territorial and
personal scope of the Charter.
