For 60 years now, the European Social Charter has been instrumental in fulfilling the mission stated in the Council of Europe’s Statute: “to achieve a greater unity between its members for the purpose of safeguarding and realising the ideals and principles which are their common heritage and facilitating their economic and social progress”. Together with the European Convention on Human Rights, it forms the basis of human rights protection in Europe.
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has regularly affirmed the importance of the Charter in guaranteeing social rights across the continent, most recently at its Hamburg Session in May this year (2021). The timing of this statement was particularly apt, given the way in which the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of human rights protections in times of sudden adversity. Moreover, while the long-term economic effects of the pandemic are still to be felt, we know that in periods of downturn it is often the poorest who suffer most. There has therefore never been a better moment to ensure the effectiveness of our social rights system.
In April of this year, I presented a series of reform proposals to the Committee of Ministers. These aim to strengthen political commitment and support for the Charter, and to improve and simplify its procedures while promoting dialogue, communication and visibility. The proposals also mark the beginning of a period of reflection on the possibility of further substantive and procedural developments. My proposals stress the importance of awareness-raising activities and of disseminating knowledge on the case law of the European Committee of Social Rights. I also point to the importance of including the Charter in university and other higher education curricula and of providing information and training for legal professionals, including judges.
ANESC is playing its own awareness-raising role, doing first-rate work to increase the Charter’s visibility. This publication is the latest, important example. The first instalment of a multi-volume scholarly commentary on the Charter and its procedures, it is set to become a reference for academics and practitioners. As a landmark document, it is fitting that it coincides with the Charter’s 60th anniversary, and a statement of the centrality of social rights to modern European life.
Marija Pejčinović Burić (Secretary General of the Council of Europe) Strasbourg, July 2021