European Social Rights: The European Social Charter
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X9700400201 |
| Published date | 01 June 1997 |
| Date | 01 June 1997 |
| Author | Aalt Willem Heringa |
| Subject Matter | Editorial |
Editorial
Eu rope an So cia l Righ ts: T he Eu ropean S ocial C harter
Europe has at its disposal a well developed and strong Bill of Rights in th e European
Convention of Human Rights and its authoritative supervisory mechanism. The scope
of this Bill of Rights, however well developed and important in its c ontribution to the
rule of law, is limited. The primary focus of the European Convention is freedom rights
and civil liberties.
Compared to the flourishing Convention, the ‘(ugly step-?)sister treaty’ the European
Social Charter, has experienced a much more modest existence. Fewer European states
have become parties to all the provisio ns of the Charter; a less authoritative and
influential supervisory mechanism had been established; t here is no poss ibility for
groups and individuals to start an individual complaints procedure ; the impact o f the
findings resulting from the relatively complicated reporting procedure is hardly
noticeable; and the Charter provisions do not seem to play as important a r ole as
Convention pro visions do in national legal orders and in procedures before the national
courts. In recent years many developments have taken place i n ord er to attempt to
redress this deplor able situation. As so often happens in the law , these developments
took place in different places and settings, yet they coincided and can and do mutually
strengthen each other and will hopefully do so in the future.
First of all the Council of Europe started a campaign to relaunch the Charter, intended
to improve as far as possible its shortcomings in order to give its rights the prope r place
in the European and national legal orders. Many goals have been achieved in that
respect. Pertinent achievements are the completion of a series of Protocols:
1988: an Additional Proto col, adding four new rights to the Charter; this Protocol
entered into force in 1992 for t hose six states whic h have ratified it;
1992: an Amending Protocol, containing improvements in the efficiency and
effectiveness o f the supervision procedures; this Protocol has been ratified by 10
states but will only enter into force after ratificat ion by all Contracting states;
MJ 4 (1997) 107
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