Karl DONERT, President of EUROGEO, Vice-Chair of the Committee and Coordinator of the Working Group on Climate and Human Rights, presented the follow-up to the Paris Climate Agreement, highlighting the political will of the States on the positive side and, on the negative one, the rise in temperatures for the third year in a row, including the oceans' one  and the increase in climatic migrations
 
Link to Karl DONERT's presentation

Committee on Democracy, Social Cohesion and Global Challenges
Council od Europe - 25 January 2017

Maguelonne DEJEANT-PONS, Head of Division, Executive Secretary of the European Landscape Convention of the Council of Europe, made clear through fifty-two examples from the Alliance of the Landscape Award of the Council of Europe that land and  landscape sharing,  build people's rights, democracy and Peace,

Link to the Council of Europe website

Ageing and Health - follow up of the side event held on 23 June 2016

Lord Foulkes  Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (United Kingdom), Rapporteur on « A European social commitment guaranteeing the rights of older people and their comprehensive care », and President of the Charity AGE Scotland , stressed that  "because it is the Council of Europe, that is producing the report, we are looking at it from human rights point of view. That doesn’t mean to say, he added, that we are not concerned with compassion for the elderly and how we have got responsibility to look after our older people but we are looking at it not from a compassion point of view but from human rights of older people.  So, it is important to think in terms of the rights of people."

A huge demographic change versus austerity programs
Lord Foulkes pointed out the huge demographic change taking place. Soon in Europe, he said, 25% of our population will be over  65; And in the world as a whole there will be 40 million people over the age of 85, particularly vulnerable older people. And meanwhile, the working population is reducing. The income and the wealth of the countries is going down. And we are also going through a time when governments around Europe are talking about making cuts. They have programs of austerity. They do in the UK and in many other European countries.

A guarantee of charter for older people
So it is even more important. It is now absolutely the right time that we should get an agreement through the Council of Europe to get a guarantee or charter for older people. 

The rapporteur calls for a Charter at Council of Europe level to

1.  make sure that there is no discrimination against any person in any service as a result of their age whether it be health service or insurance 
2. garantee a minimum level of income
3. provide an appropriate housing (comfort, security). 
4. foster active ageing because the more active a person is, the more likely he or she will not need the services of society, social services and health services. 
5. Getting health and social care working together providing  adequate services 
6. regular monitoring and inspection in services for the elderly to make sure that older people are not being abused since no one admits that older people are being abused in their country. In some cases by their own relatives, in other cases in institutions.

Laurence LWOFF  reported to the Committee on the work of the Committee on Bioethics in progress, in particular issues arising from the work of the Democracy, Social Cohesion and Global Challenges Committee and PACE on the theme of older people, which will be highlighted during the Next celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Oviedo Convention

The Human Rights and Bioethics Convention: an international reference instrument
After recalling that the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine is the responsibility of the Intergovernmental Bioethics Committee of the Council of Europe, Mrs Lwoff, who is its Executive Secretariat, underlines that this Convention is a reference Human rights at European level but also at international level. So the Inter-American Court of Human Rights uses the Oviedo Convention as a reference tool.

The celebration of the 20th anniversary of this convention will be an opportunity to adopt a forward-looking vision on the place of the principles established by the Council of Europe in the field of bio-medical development.

Many think that "development" means scientific and technological development, says Lwolff, but it is also about how practices evolve and the thinking of the Commission and Lord Foulkes seems to him to be important in this respect.

The recommendation adopted by the Committee in June 2016 has been distributed to all Member States. It reinforced the idea that it was necessary not only to look at new developments of modernity but also to look at whether things that seemed obvious were always so, such as respect for consent, equity of access to care, how people particularly the most vulnerable ones  are cared for. 

Evolution of practices or erosion of principles?

Considering that the work of reflection on the issue of older people is particularly relevant, Laurence Lwoff said that it has aroused great interest among the delegations, many of whom are committed to these issues

Laurence Lwoff indicated that priority areas of reflection have been chosen in order to discern

• •what is the result either of changes in practices or  erosion of  principles or their implementation
•  technological development - implying change in practices - and respect for the principles

To identify areas of work for a medium-term strategic action plan to address these various development challenges in the field of medical biotechnology, again not only related to the field of new technologies even though they have an impact on the way in which older people are taken care of

"Democracy : transparency and sustainable partnership through Open Governement Partnership (OGP)" - 25 January 2017

Former Secretary of State at the Ministry in charge of Public consultation and civil dialogue in Romania, Ms PETRESCU advocated for access to information, transparency, institutional capacity and support for NGOs to build sustainable partnership

She insisted on the government will to create a coherent framework for public participation in the decision making process and to enhance the level of transparency and access to public information in the Romanian administration. The "Your right to know campaign" was a key process, the first time when a public institution from central administration speaks to citizens about their right to know and active citizenship !​
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She underlined the 5 Government priorities :

1. Increase transparency of public administration by creating
    =>>  a Memorandum on increasing transparency and standardizing public interest information and  public institutions ‘ websites, in which contents and quality are consistent
   =>> a Unique Transparency Interests Register at Government level, providing information on interaction between  high government officials and specialized groups (companies and NGOs) to adopt/modify public policies (30 specialized groups and 80 high government officials out of 170 registered gathered during the first week)
   
   
2. Open and effective dialogue with civil society through actions such as 
   =>>  The "Your right to know"  campaign launched by the Ministry for Public consultation and  Civil Dialogue encouraged all ministries to publish public interest data.  In September 2016: 98% of Government projects were on public consultation
    =>>  E-Debate:  a calendar of all public debates organized by central authorities in which Citizens are able to provide their opinions on Government's projects
    =>>   EU-Consultation:  a warning bulletin to inform and educate Romanian citizens  on  EU Commission legislative decisions and their deadlines
    =>>  28 live broadcast public debates
    =>>  "Talking to your Minister ": for the first time in 26 years, insisted Ms Petrescu,  11 ministers communicated on line with citizens, answering in real time citizens’ question
3. Enhance institutional capacity of ministries and government  agencies to
   practice transparency
   An Experts Forum gathered 180 representatives of central administration with responsibilities in implementing transparency legislation to discuss and exchange experience with NGOs
   A Study on Jurisprudence concerning exceptions of free access to public interest information was settled on data base including 600 Court final decisions from 2014 and 2015  on litigations concerning the implementation of free access to public interest information
   A Central Administration Handbook for Transparent and Effective Public Consultation
   was created Including recommendations  to facilitate each stage of public consultation process
   
   
4. Support nongovernmental organizations to enhance their skills for building a sustainable partnership with the State
   A  Study was undertaken on “Public sources NGOs funding”. it was the first in-depth analysis on increasing the impact of NGOs funded from public money and simplified administrative proceedings, said Ms PETRESCU-
   A Study on “NGOs representation in central administration public structures” permitted for the first time an evaluation done by a public institution on 10 public structures which include NGOs in their decisional bodies
   Ms PETRESCU stressed that  90 experts (public authorities representatives, architects, NGOs) took part in integrated public policies consultations 
   
   
5. Organize  innovative active citizenship campaigns
   Such as
   - participation in NGO Fest. The Festival of Non-Governmental Organizations
    - set up 10 “Public institutions serving citizens” booths where public servants explained to citizens which type of services they are providing