1. Introduction
1. The European Alliance of Catholic Women’s Organisations,
ANDANTE, applied for participatory status with the Council of Europe
after its General Assembly expressed the wish to obtain such status
in April 2008. In August 2008, the association was informed that
consideration of its application had been suspended and that the
association would be permitted to attend sessions of the Conference
of International Non-governmental Organisations (INGOs) of the Council
of Europe for a two-year observation period, in order to assess
its capacity to actively participate in the Council of Europe’s
activities.
2. In March 2010, in a letter to the Civil Society/NGO Division
of the Directorate General of Political Affairs of the Council of
Europe, Ms Marie-Louise van Wijk-van de Ven, Chairperson of the
ANDANTE Association, renewed the application. A negative reply was
sent to her on 9 July 2010.
3. While noting that the ANDANTE Association had participated
in the work of the Conference of INGOs, the Head of the Civil Society/NGO
Division stated in her reply that she was not aware of any concrete
co-operation that ANDANTE had had with the Council of Europe during
the observation period. She referred to the ongoing reform of the
Council of Europe and the rationalisation of its activities. She
also mentioned the evaluation of relations between the Council of
Europe and the INGOs and the possible changes to the criteria for
granting participatory status to them. In conclusion, she indicated
that she was hesitant about the possibility of any concrete co-operation
between ANDANTE and the Council of Europe.
4. Further to this negative assessment, on 29 September 2010,
the Secretary General of the Council of Europe transmitted to the
Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress
of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe the names
of the INGOs to which he had decided not to grant participatory
status (document SG/Inf(2010)17). Paragraph 6.i of this document
reads:
“i. The Secretary General
rejected ex officio the applications
for participatory status from the following NGOs and INGOs which
did not meet the conditions set out in paragraph 2 of the appendix
to Committee of Ministers’ Resolution (2003) 8. Some of these INGOs
are not representative enough at European level; in other cases
their activities do not currently appear in the Programme of Activities
of the Council of Europe, the INGO is a member of an INGO already
enjoying participatory status or the NGO is not an international
but a national or local NGO. They are as follows:
…
ANDANTE Alliance of Catholic Women’s Organisations
…”.
5. Paragraph 15 of the appendix to Committee of Ministers Resolution
Res(2003)8 on participatory status for international non-governmental
organisations with the Council of Europe lays down that “ten members
of the Parliamentary Assembly from five different national delegations
… may request that an examination be made of the file of any applicant
INGO”.
6. Pursuant to this provision, more than 10 members of the Assembly
belonging to over five national delegations objected to the decision
not to grant participatory status to the ANDANTE Association. The Committee
of Ministers therefore referred the matter to the Assembly for opinion.
It was then referred for report to the Committee on Culture, Science
and Education, which appointed me rapporteur in April 2011.
7. I have read the information set out in the file transmitted
by the ANDANTE Association on submitting its application and consulted
the association’s website.
During
the Assembly's June 2011 part-session, I had an opportunity to meet
the chairperson of the association, Ms Marie-Louise van Wijk-van
de Ven, and Mr Gabriel Nissim, who was, during the observation period,
the Chairperson of the Human Rights Committee of the Council of
Europe Conference of INGOs.
2. Conditions for granting participatory
status and co-operation procedure
8. The conditions to be met by INGOs in order to obtain
participatory status are listed in paragraph 2 of the appendix to
Resolution Res(2003)8:
“2. Participatory
status may be granted by the Council of Europe to INGOs:
a. which are particularly representative in the field(s)
of their competence, fields of action shared by the Council of Europe;
b. which are represented at European level, that is to
say which have members in a significant number of countries throughout
greater Europe;
c. which are able, through their work, to support the
achievement of that closer unity mentioned in Article 1 of the Council
of Europe's Statute;
d. are capable of contributing to and participating actively
in Council of Europe deliberations and activities;
e. which are able to make known the work of the Council
of Europe among European citizens.”
9. In practice, co-operation with INGOs enjoying participatory
status takes a wide variety of forms, ranging from straightforward
consultation to full-scale co-operation on specific projects. The
INGO experts may participate in various projects as consultants;
they can, for example, contribute to the work of the intergovernmental
committees on an institutionalised or an ad hoc basis, address memoranda
to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, present oral
or written statements before Parliamentary Assembly and Congress
of Local and Regional Authorities committees and address seminars
and other meetings organised by the Council of Europe.
10. The INGOs enjoying participatory status make up the Conference
of INGOs, which meets twice a year in Strasbourg contextually with
the January and June part-sessions of the Parliamentary Assembly.
The
work of the conference is conducted via thematic commissions and
transversal groups.
11. Paragraph 9 of the appendix to Resolution Res(2003)8 lays
down certain obligations on INGOs enjoying participatory status.
They must undertake to:
“a. keep
themselves regularly informed of Council of Europe activities and
developments in standards by means of the numerous sources of information
available, including the Internet;
b. furnish, either spontaneously or at the request of
the Council of Europe's different bodies, information, documents
or opinions relating to their own field(s) of competence on matters
which are under consideration or which could be addressed by the
Council of Europe;
c. work to promote the respect of the Council of Europe's
standards, conventions and legal instruments in the member states,
and assist in the implementation of these standards, and this in
close contact with local, regional and national NGOs;
d. give maximum publicity to the initiatives and achievements
of the Council of Europe in their own field(s) of competence;
e. disseminate information on Council of Europe standards,
instruments and activities, as well as information from the INGO
thematic groupings, to their members, on a regular basis, and ensure
that they too work actively to fulfil the requirements of the participatory
status.”
12. Paragraph 9.f concludes
this list of undertakings with the obligation to submit every four
years a report to the Secretary General which should specify the
INGO’s actual contribution to the work of the Council of Europe
and its efforts to publicise its work and promote its values and
standards.
3. Basic information on the ANDANTE Association
13. The ANDANTE Association is a network of national
Catholic women’s associations which was set up in May 2006. The
association is governed by German law and is based in Düsseldorf
(Germany). According to its statutes, the objectives of the association
are “to promote the presence, participation and co-responsibility of
Catholic women in European society and in the Church” (Article 2.1),
advocating recognition of common values across the different cultures,
working for the common good from a female perspective and promoting just
participation of women in society and the church (Article 2.2).
14. Membership of the association is open to Catholic women's
organisations in Europe, as well as mixed Catholic organisations
of women and men in Europe, provided that their delegates to the
General Assembly of the association are women.
15. ANDANTE currently comprises 22 organisations in 13 European
countries. The table below sets out the names and (approximate)
number of members.
Organisation
|
Country
|
Number of members
|
Action Catholique des Femmes du Luxembourg
|
Luxembourg
|
14 500
|
Action Catholique des Femmes
|
France
|
10 000
|
Institute of our Lady of Mercy, English Branch
|
United Kingdom
|
300
|
Katholische Frauengemeinschaft Deutschlands
|
Germany
|
620 000
|
Katholiek Vrouwen Dispuut
|
Netherlands
|
310
|
Katholische Frauenbewegung Österreichs
|
Austria
|
150 000
|
Katholischer Deutscher Frauenbund
|
Germany
|
220 000
|
Katolicke hnutie žien Slovenska
|
Slovak Republic
|
80 000
|
KAV-Fraueninitiative
|
Austria
|
not indicated
|
Keresztény Nöi Felnöttkepzési Egyesület
|
Hungary
|
100
|
Konferentie Nederlandse Religieuzen
|
Netherlands
|
9 500
|
Latvijas Katolu sieviešu apvieniba
|
Latvia
|
50
|
National Board of Catholic Women
|
United Kingdom
|
45 000
|
Newman Association
|
United Kingdom
|
800
|
Norges Katolske Kvinneforbund
|
Norway
|
200
|
Schweizerischer Katholischer Frauenbund
|
Switzerland
|
200 000
|
Society of the Holy Child Jesus – Province européenne
|
United Kingdom
|
150
|
Teresa Ry
|
Finland
|
100
|
Unie Katolických Žen Republique
|
Czech Republic
|
150
|
Unie Nederlandse Katholieke Vrouwenbeweging
|
Netherlands
|
28 500
|
Vie et Foi – Action catholique générale de la
Suisse Romande
|
Switzerland
|
300
|
ZijActief Nederland
|
Netherlands
|
8 000
|
4. Rapporteur’s analysis
16. The rapporteur notes from the outset that the ANDANTE
Association:
- is one of the
few women’s associations that have applied for participatory status
with the Council of Europe, and it is particularly representative
in the field of promoting women’s rights and the role of women in
society, which are also important fields of action of the Council
of Europe;
- is particularly representative at the European level,
given that it has members in 13 countries of the greater Europe;
- advocates recognition of values shared by the various
cultures and commitment to the common good from a female perspective
and, accordingly, participates in the achievement of a greater unity
as set out in Article 1 of the Statute of the Council of Europe.
17. The grounds for refusing to grant participatory status to
this association, as they emerge from the reply sent to Ms Marie-Louise
van Wijk-van de Ven on 9 July 2010, would appear to be, firstly,
a negative assessment of the ANDANTE Association's capacity to develop
practical co-operation with the Council of Europe and, secondly,
possible changes to the criteria for granting participatory status
under the reform of the Council of Europe and the rationalisation
of its activities.
18. For the rapporteur, the ANDANTE Association has shown, during
the observation period, dynamism in taking part in the work of the
Conference of INGOs. This is the way in which most INGOs work with
the various Council of Europe bodies
19. In this connection, Mr Nissim confirmed that the association
took an active part in all the meetings of the Human Rights Committee
(it was one of the rare associations systematically represented
by its president). He stressed that the association had also made
a greater contribution to activities during the observation period than
many other associations which had already been granted participatory
status.
20. The application file shows that the association has also taken
part in the activities of the Human Rights Committee, the Culture,
Science and Education Committee and the Social Cohesion and Eradication
of Poverty Committee, as well as of the Gender Equality Transversal
Group. The association has provided contributions to the preparation
of the White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue, the 2010 questionnaire
on the implementation of the revised European Social Charter (ETS
No. 163) and the drafting of the Council of Europe Convention on
Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence
(CETS No. 210).
21. Finally, the rapporteur notes that the association develops
concrete projects (such as the January 2009 training seminar on
“good governance” and the July 2009 summer school at which Catholic
women came together to discus the media challenge for Catholic women),
which are consistent with the Council of Europe’s values and the
aim of promoting women’s role in society, and that it helps, particularly
through its electronic newsletter, to disseminate information on
Council of Europe activities among the members of its network.
22. Therefore, for the rapporteur, the balance is clearly positive
and to demand more of ANDANTE during the observation period would
be tantamount to discriminatory treatment, as the association would
be placed in a less favourable situation than the associations which
already enjoy participatory status but which do not show the same
dynamism.
23. As regards the impact of the possible changes to the criteria
for granting participatory status, the rapporteur considers that
a decision based on this argument would be:
- illegal, because the only applicable criteria are those
set out in Committee of Ministers Resolution Res(2003)8;
- illogical, because it is impossible to predict the conclusions
of the current debate in the Council of Europe and therefore to
know how the ANDANTE Association might be affected by any change
to the current criteria.
5. Conclusions
24. Drawing on the information at my disposal, the refusal
to grant participatory status to the European Alliance of Catholic
Women’s Organisations, ANDANTE, would appear unjustified, and the
Parliamentary Assembly should advise the Committee of Ministers
to reply favourably to the application submitted by this association.