Council of Europe

The Council of Europe (CoE) was established by the Treaty of London on 5 May 1949 by ten founding states, including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Ireland. Its statutory aim, set out in Article 1 of its founding Statute, is to achieve greater unity among its members for safeguarding the ideals and principles which are their common heritage—principally pluralist democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

The CoE is headquartered at the Palais de l'Europe in Strasbourg and currently has 46 member states following the expulsion of the Russian Federation on 16 March 2022 in response to its invasion of Ukraine. It should not be confused with the European Council or the Council of the European Union, which are EU institutions.

Its principal organs include:

• The Committee of Ministers, composed of member states' foreign ministers, which is the decision-making body.
• The Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), made up of delegations from national parliaments.
• The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.
• The Secretariat, led by the Secretary General.

The CoE's most influential instrument is the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), opened for signature in Rome on 4 November 1950 and entered into force in 1953. The ECHR is enforced by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also seated in Strasbourg, whose judgments are binding on states parties. Other significant treaties drafted under CoE auspices include the European Social Charter (1961), the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (1995), the Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention, 2001), and the Istanbul Convention on violence against women (2011).

The CoE works closely with bodies such as the Venice Commission (formally the European Commission for Democracy through Law) on constitutional matters and standards for elections.