15/11/2010 Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The year 2011 will mark the 50th anniversary of the European Social Charter, and will be an occasion to assert the indivisibility of social rights and civil and political rights, the Charter’s importance for upholding this corpus of rights and, in particular, the enhanced role of the PACE in the Charter’s supervisory machinery. This was the view expressed today by the Social Affairs Committee in adopting a report on the subject at its meeting in Paris.
Rapporteur Bernard Marquet (Monaco, ALDE) considers that ample support for European social rights is assured by the fact that most member states are parties to the 1961 Social Charter or to its revised version. Only four states - Liechtenstein, Monaco, San-Marino and Switzerland – have signed neither of these core treaties. The year 2011 provides a good opportunity for the Council of Europe member states to acknowledge and openly proclaim that social rights are an important component of human rights, and to make this instrument a true frame of reference for European social policy.