The Ministers Deputies (or Ministers' Deputies) are the representatives of the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

Committee of Ministers at

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

. While the Committee of Ministers is the executive organ of the Council of Europe, it actually only meets once year in Strasbourg, in what are known as the ministerial sessions. Its day-to-day work is carried out by the deputies, who are the permanent representatives, mostly of

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

ial rank, the heads of their countries’ diplomatic missions in Strasbourg. So most of the time that the Committee of Ministers is quoted as having done something, it is actually the deputies who have taken the decision. Their decisions have the same weight and effect as the Committee of Ministers. The Deputies currently meet at least once a week in plenary, usually on a Wednesday, in the great Committee of Ministers meeting room at the front of the Palace of Europe, and several times a week in committee, as one of their rapporteur groups, or ''ad hoc'' working groups. The frequency of meetings has increased considerably since 1989. They have regular special

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

meetings in their capacity of supervising the execution of the

judgments Judgement (or judgment) is the evaluation of given circumstances to Decision-making, make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. In an informal context, a judgement is opinion expressed as fact. In the context o ...

of the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

. The chairmanship of the deputies changes every six months, at each session of the Committee of Ministers, following the English alphabetical order of member states. The current chair (November 2021 – May 2022) is

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. There is also a Bureau, set up in 1975 to assist the chairmanship, which consists of the current chair, the two previous and the three future chairpersons.

History

The system of permanent representatives was set up by the Committee of Ministers in May 1951. It was the following year that they took a separate decision to appoint a deputy to whom they delegated most of the work. Legally, therefore, the deputies and the permanent representatives are distinct, although for practical purposes they are almost always the same person. While they currently all reside in Strasbourg, this is not obligatory, and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

and

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

only opened missions there in the 1990s.

External links

Committee of Ministers website

List of Permanent Representatives to the Council of Europe

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe/ by Guy de Vel, 1994

References

{{reflist Diplomats by role Council of Europe