The Government of the Czech Republic approved the priorities of the Czech Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers by Resolution No. 334 of May 3, 2017. These priorities included the protection of the human rights of persons belonging to vulnerable or disadvantaged groups, gender equality, strengthening the rule of law, promoting human rights education and linguistic skills, supporting local and regional democracy and public administration reforms and cooperation with other international organizations.

The priorities have been carried out over the last six months mainly through conferences and other symposia organized by the Czech Chairmanship the number of which exceeded twenty. The priorities were also presented at international fora and during various bilateral meetings between the Minister and his European counterparts. During the Chairmanship, the Czech Republic either signed or ratified five international conventions of the Council of Europe. The most important events included a conference on the issue of the binding effect of judicial decisions, which took place with the participation of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe and the highest representatives of the European and national judiciaries in June in Brno. Other topics of the conferences organized in the framework of the implementation of the chairmanship’s priorities included the issue of detention of migrant children, issues of youth policies, human rights education, corruption issues, collection of gender equality statistics or the improvement of the quality of public administration at local and regional level. A summary information document on the Czech CoE Chairmanship will be submitted to the Government of the Czech Republic soon.

At a special meeting of Permanent Representatives of the Council of Europe’s member States the Minister presented the implementation of the priorities, highlighted the main events held during the chairmanship and summarized the current challenges in the agenda of the Committee of Ministers (see the attached document “Stocktaking of the Czech Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers”). Then he officially handed over the chairmanship for the next six months to his Danish counterpart, Minister Anders Samuelsen. At the end of the meeting, devoted to the transfer of chairmanship, he listened to the presentation of the Danish Chairmanship’s priorities. The Minister met for bilateral talk with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Mr Thorbjørn Jagland, with whom he worked intensively during the past six months of the Czech Chairmanship. In the afternoon the Czech flag-lowering ceremony in front of the Strasbourg City Hall and a meeting with the representatives of the municipality of Strasbourg were scheduled. The Czech Republic organized together with the City of Strasbourg the accompanying cultural program of its CoE Chairmanship, which involved more than a dozen cultural events.

Stocktaking of the Czech Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (PDF, 159 KB)

Bilan de la Présidence tchèque du Comité des Ministres du Conseil de l’Europe (PDF, 143 KB)

Minister Zaorálek Passed the Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the CoE to Denmark

Minister Zaorálek Passed the Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the CoE to Denmark