Council of Europe’s Stocktaking on European Conventions

On May 16, 2012, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe released his Report on the review of the Council of Europe conventions.[1] Its importance derives from a specific characteristic of this organization: its work and activity are based on international treaties which are being prepared and opened for signature in this forum. As for the legal nature of these conventions, the Council Secretariat noted in 1969 that: “The conventions and agreements concluded within the Council of Europe are not, strictly speaking, legal acts of the organization. They are, in respect of their legal existence, instruments between a certain number of States which have expressed, by ratification or by signature without reservation in respect of ratification, their consent to be bound by the provisions which they contain.”[2]