Publication of the Report of the High Level Reflection Group on the future of the Council of Europe

The Report of the High Level Reflection Group on the future of the Council of Europe, with Evangelos Venizelos as Rapporteur, has just been published. The Group formulates 30 Recommendations to enable the Council of Europe to respond effectively to the challenges posed by the war in Ukraine with an emphasis on the promotion of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, making their protection within the Organization more effective, while strengthening cooperation with the European Union and the United Nations. The role of National Human Rights Institutions is emphasized both within the procedures of the Organization and in their interface with the United Nations system: to this end, the Group proposes the creation of an intergovernmental process for monitoring States' compliance with ECtHR judgements and the recommendations of other independent bodies of the Council, similarly to the Universal Periodic Review at the UN. The NHRIs will participate in this process to strengthen transparency and accessibility to the citizens of the Member States. The Greek National Commission for Human Rights welcomes this initiative, which is in line with its priorities and its recent interventions towards the implementation of the ECtHR judgments as well as the recommendations of other human rights supervisory bodies of the Organization.