We are participating in the 4th Council of Europe Summit in Iceland from May 14-17 2023 as we submit an input through the CoE’s open call for submissions.

The Council of Europe is the oldest and leading pan-European organization that has the critical role of playing as the region’s guarding of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. The Summit will be holding Heads of State and Government to strive and ensure to meet current challenges and the expectations of future generations.

The open call seeks for the input from all multistakeholders such as international organisations, national human rights institutions, civil society organisations, research centres, policy makers, academia, lawyers, human rights defenders which will inform the Summit outcome documents.

The BSM has organized a session with individuals that may be directly affected with the given questions such as a young Ukrainian lady who is currently living in France for their personal perspective on the CoE’s role in the current crisis. In conclusion of the session, data and evidence gathering during the war must be of utmost priority of the CoE – galvanizing resources in order to assure efficiency of international law on post-war discussions to provide the victims, most especially, the women and children, justice.

In addition, we are strongly urging the CoE to impose the private sector a measurable framework on sexual harassment in the workplace – enhancing their human rights policies through good labor practices. Finally, the participation of non-profit organizations must be consistently considered and valued in discussions to enable youth participation and minority representation in the global issue discussions.

Read our full input below.

Source: Call for Input