Council of Europe

Founded in 1949, the Council of Europe is the continent’s oldest political organisation. It groups together 47 European countries and has granted observer status to 5 more countries (the Holy See, the United States, Canada, Japan and Mexico). Its headquarters are in Strasbourg.

From the fall of the Berlin wall, a main focus has become acting as a political anchor and human rights watchdog for Europe’s post-communist democracies, assisting the countries of central and eastern Europe in carrying out and consolidating political, legal and constitutional reform in parallel with economic reform, or providing know-how in areas such as human rights, local democracy, education, culture and the environment.

UIHJ is a member of the Council of Europe, as an NGO. It is also a permanent observer member of its European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ). Several members of UIHJ participate on a regular basis as experts at missions of the Council of Europe.