Council of Europe

Source: CoE

The Council of Europe’s main values are human rights, democracy and rule of law. It advocates for freedom of expression and of the media, freedom of assembly, equality, and the protection of minorities. It has launched campaigns on issues such as child protection, online hate speech, and the rights of the Roma (Europe's largest minority). The Council of Europe helps Member States fight corruption and terrorism and undertake necessary judicial reforms. Its group of constitutional experts, known as the Venice Commission, offers legal advice to countries throughout the world. Council of Europe Member States no longer apply the death penalty.

The Council of Europe promotes human rights through international conventions, such as the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence and the Convention on Cybercrime. It monitors Member States' progress in these areas and makes recommendations through independent expert monitoring bodies.

The Ombudsman monitors and promotes the effective implementation of signed and ratified international human rights instruments, including making proposals and recommendations to the National Assembly and the Council of Ministers for signing and/or ratifying international human rights instruments.

The institution monitors (together with other national institutions) the implementation in Bulgaria of Council of Europe's following international instruments: 

1. The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights / ECHR)

The European Convention on Human Rights was opened for signature in Rome on 4 November 1950 and came into force on 3 September 1953. It was the first instrument to give effect to certain of the rights stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and make them binding.

Since its adoption in 1950 the Convention has been amended a number of times and supplemented with many rights in addition to those set forth in the original text. In 2025 the ECHR marks its 75th anniversary. 

As regards the ECHR, the main criterion for the opinion of the Ombudsman is the execution of final ECtHR judgements against Bulgaria and the alignment of the national legislation to its case-law.

More information on the Ombudsman's monitoring of this Convention can be found below.

What is the difference between the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Council of Europe's European Convention on Human Rights?
The ECHR is an international treaty for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe of the 46 Member States of the Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg.

The Convention establishes the European Court of Human Rights (the "Strasbourg Court"), which aims to protect people when human rights are violated. The Council of Europe has over 224 conventions and protocols in the 75 years since its creation. More information on the differences between the European Union and the Council of Europe (the two largest regional organisations in Europe) can be found HERE.
                                    
In general, the Council of Europe has two main treaties related to the Human Rights of the Council of Europe (among over 224 conventions and protocols): 
- European Convention on Human Rights of 1950, containing civil and political rights; and 
- The European Social Charter (revised) of 1996, containing social rights. 

In contrast, the European Union has the 2009 Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which is the EU's legal instrument on human rights. It contains civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights. The Charter is inspired by previous international documents, but has a broader scope of rights and principles that EU member states are obliged to respect when applying EU law.