Welcome to the IofC Council of Europe Page

Initiatives of Change International received participatory status at the Council of Europe (CoE) in January 2005. IofC International participates in the Conference of INGOs (International Non-Government Organizations), one of the three consultative bodies of the organization.

The CoE has its headquarters in Strasbourg, Eastern France, was founded in 1949 by ten and now has 47 member states representing a total of 800 million inhabitants. It is made up of the Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly, the conference of Local and Regional Governments and the INGO conference. Among the key CoE topics are Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, Minority issues and Intercultural Dialogue.

A historic achievement is the European Court of Human Rights where any individual has right of appeal beyond his or her own State judiciary. For more, click here

In 2006 a broad based work began to elaborate a White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue. The Council of Europe proposes this Intercultural Dialogue as a way of formulating new policy ideas in an environment of ongoing, if not increasing exclusions, inter-ethnic and social tensions. For more, click here.

The IofC Representative was called to help lead the White Paper elaboration from the side of the INGO’s. The White Paper was approved by the Committee of Ministers in May 2008. In July 2008 the Executive of the INGO Conference appointed the IofC Representative as Special Advisor for Intercultural Dialogue and handed him two special assignments in the same year. He comments that IofC’s experience of enabling the human and moral basis for dialogue as well as its policy of networking has come in handy for contributing something in the context of an international organization.

Contact:
IofC Representative to CoE
P.O. Box 3909
CH-6002 Luzern, Switzerland
Tel. +41 41 311 22 13
Fax +41 41 311 22 14
Click here to send an email