Council of Europe: Taking Stock of the European Social Charter at 60 – 28 April

Date: 28 April 2021

Time: 10am - 1.30pm

About this Event:

The University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre, together with the  Roma Tre Centro Internazionale di Ricerca ‘Diritto e Globalizzazione and the European Social Charter Department of the Council of Europe, invite you to an event marking the 60th anniversary of the 1961 European Social Charter. Featuring expert speakers, this workshop will focus on ‘taking stock’ of the Charter and the work of its supervisory body – the European Committee of Social Rights – so far. 

The European Social Charter system is the oldest and most wide-ranging instrument providing for social rights in Europe. From the gender pay gap to the rights of migrants and unaccompanied children, from older persons’ rights to right to strike, the Charter has proved a living instrument capable of engaging with the challenges faced by Europeans in the 60 years since its adoption. Despite this, the system remains frequently neglected and misunderstood both by social rights and European human rights law actors. This event will both celebrate and critique the European Social Charter system in light of the legal, social and political factors that have shaped it since 1961.  

Speakers will address:

• Key thematic areas in terms of the European Social Charter, including older person’s rights, children’s rights, the right to health, and equality and non-discrimination;
• The European Social Charter’s contribution to a European model of Social Rights;
• Key institutional developments throughout the history of the system

Speakers include:

• Colm O’Cinneide, Professor of Constitutional and Human Rights Law at University College London (UCL);
• Tonia Novitz, Professor of Labour Law at the University of Bristol;
• Keith Ewing, Professor of Public Law at King's College, London;
• Aoife Nolan, Professor of International Human Rights Law and Co-Director of the Human Rights Law Centre at the University of Nottingham;
• Gerard Quinn, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;
• Karin Lukas, President of the European Committee of Social Rights and Senior Researcher at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights, Vienna;
• Michael O’Flaherty, Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights;
• Giuseppe Palmisano, General Rapporteur of the European Committee of Social Rights & Professor of International Law and International Human Rights Law at the University of Roma Tre;
• Dr Claire Lougarre, Lecturer in Human Rights Law at Southampton Law School and the Director of the research centre Health, Ethics and Law;
• Professor David Harris, founder and Co-Director of the Human Rights Law Centre at the University of Nottingham.

Register, find the full programme and more information on the speakers here.