The Winter Session of the INGOs Conference was marked by
several thematic debates, the election of the new Board members, and the
creation of the working groups of the various committees. EPA was represented by its current representative Hermínio Corrêa.
Among the several
debates organised during the week, some of the highlights were the following:
· A side event “Human Rights Defenders in the Council of
Europe area: current challenges and new responses “sponsored by Egidijus
Vareikis, MP (LT, EPP) Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders in
the Council of Europe, with the participation of several CoE organizations.
A side event “LGBTI in Europe, Think Together” organized by
Anne Nègre, Gender Expert of the Conference with the participation of the
Parliamentary Assembly General Rapporteur on LGBTI and several NGO’s.
An Intergenerational Forum/Market Place “Digital Society”-
Together Let’s Inspire the Image of Tomorrow
The situation analysis of NGO’s in member States with
reports from the visits led by the President of the Conference to Estonia and
Serbia, with the presence of the respective ambassadors in Coe and
representatives of local NGOs.
The Conference adopted a recommendation relating to the
proclamation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, already adopted by the
European Parliament the Council of Europe and the European Commission,
concerned by the fact that this text is a political document unaccompanied of a
clear implementation plan.
The Conference adopted a recommendation to the Council of
Europe, for the French expression "Droits de l’Homme" to be
systematically replaced by "Droits Humain" within the
Council of Europe, it’s institutions including the European Court of Human
Rights that its texts be revised accordingly, that the translations be in
conformity with a non-discriminatory expression towards women in all the
languages used and particularly in one of the two official languages of the
Council of Europe , French
The Conference also adopted two legal opinion by Expert
Council on NGO Law of the Conference about the situation of NGO’s in Romania
and Turkey.
At the closing session we had the presence of the recently
appointed Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović, who told us about
her career at CoE so far and explain us the work of the Commission.
In this session the following Board members were elected for
the next 3 years:
President: Anna
Rurka
Vice-President in charge of Equality: Anne
Nègre
In this session, the working groups of the different
Committees were also defined, as follows:
Democracy, Social
Cohesion and Global Challenges:
Participation in political decision
Prevention of corruption that engages the civil society
Protection of the human being and human dignity
Education and
Culture:
Lifelong learning
Intercultural cities
Europe of heritage and creation
Human Rights:
Protection mechanisms for endangered Human rights defenders
Grassroot monitoring toolbox
Poverty discrimination and exclusion
In view of the special and current importance of the topic,
it was decided to create another cross-cutting group on “Digital rights and digital future” that each committee will
approach according to the area of intervention of each one of them.
The EPA will be part of the Lifelong learning and Digital
rights and digital future groups
Lisbon, 26 January 2018.
Hermínio Corrêa
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