Ukraine Takes Over the Chairmanship of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers

KYIV, Ukraine, May 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Ukraine assumes presidency at the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers. For the next six months Ukraine will focus on such priorities as protection of children's rights, implementation of the European Court of Human Rights decisions, improvement of local governance and protection of rights of the disabled people, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of 47 of the Council of Europe member states meet today in Istanbul, Turkey. At the end of the session Ukraine will take over the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers, from Turkey for the next six months. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu presented a report on Turkey's achievements over the past six months and Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine presented the priorities of Ukraine that include protection of children's rights, implementation of the European Court of Human Rights decisions, improvement of local governance and protection of rights of the disabled people.

Notably, the Ukrainian presidency in the CE Committee of Ministers, which will last until November 2011, will be the first for nearly sixteen years since Ukraine has been a member of the organization.

Suffice it to say, that in 2013 Ukraine will assume the OSCE chairmanship. Such decision was made by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the 56 OSCE member countries back in 2010.

The Council of Europe is an international organization founded in 1949 under the London Agreement with an aim to promote cooperation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural cooperation. The Council consists of 47 member states with some 800 million citizens.

The organization seeks to resolve such problems as terrorism, organized crime, corruption and illicit trafficking. The Council of Europe is supported by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg - a permanent court,which was created to defend the European Convention on Human Rights. The Council of Europe's work has resulted in standards, charters and conventions to facilitate cooperation between European countries. The Committee of Ministers is one of the statutory institutions of the CE and comprises of the foreign ministers of each member states.