ETUC feliciteert de Raad van Europa met het tienjarig jubileum van de Revised Social Charter (en)

Exactly 10 years after the event, the Council of Europe (COE) yesterday celebrated the opening for signature and ratification of the Revised Social Charter (RSC), on 3 May 1996. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), which has been actively involved in both the drafting and the supervisory mechanisms of the RSC, associates itself fully with the well justified congratulations expressed on this occasion.

Many successes have been achieved so far. Yet the ETUC is convinced that in order to give the RSC the bright future it deserves - as a cornerstone and core instrument for the protection of fundamental social rights throughout Europe - the following actions, amongst others, are crucial:

1. All member states of the Council of Europe (COE) should ratify the RSC as well as the related Protocol of Collective Complaints;2. The COE should strive to make the RSC even more effective by guaranteeing the necessary political support and budgetary resources to all its supervisory bodies;3. All actors involved in the application and implementation of the RSC should undertake all appropriate initiatives to increase awareness, knowledge and use of the RSC amongst legislative, administrative and judicial bodies, as well as the general public.

The ETUC also reiterates its longstanding demand that the EU should, as soon as possible, adhere to the European Convention of Human Rights, to which the RSC is an indispensable complement.

The ETUC is committed to ensuring the effective application and implementation of the RSC, in particular, and fundamental social rights throughout Europe in general. To this end, it will continue to play its full role in the different supervisory bodies and mechanisms, and it urges all other actors involved in these processes to join in this commitment in order to guarantee the future of the RSC.