Council of Europe (COE)

Avenue de l'Europe
67075 Strasbourg Cedex
France

Phone: 33-(0)3-8841-2033
Fax: 33-(0)3-8841-2745
E-mail: infopoint@coe.int
Internet: www.coe.int

Founded in 1949, the Council of Europe was the first regional IO to be established in Europe after World War II. Today it has a membership of forty-six countries. The organization's principal bodies are the Committee of Ministers (the Council's primary decision maker), the Parliamentary Assembly, and the Secretariat. Resolutions and conventions of the Council are advisory and become binding on member states only upon ratification.

The Council's main purposes are to promote democracy; to advance the rule of law; to protect human rights; to encourage Europe's political, economic, and social development; to assess Europe's problems and propose solutions; and to assist former members of the Warsaw Pact with the transition to democracy. The Council has been instrumental in promoting and protecting human rights in Europe, especially in the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia. The council has also played an important role in monitoring elections in central Europe. Under the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (passed by the Council of Europe in 1950), individuals may bring claims of human rights violations to the European Commission of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights.