Around 400 International NGOs (INGOs) have participatory status with the Council of Europe (CoE), and these NGOs constitute the ‘Conference of INGOs of the Council of Europe’, one of the four pillars of the CoE.
IHEU has cooperated with the CoE from its early years, but this cooperation has noticeably increased over the last 25 years. IHEU is one of 40 INGOs enjoying amicus curiae status with the Council of Europe.
We are pleased to announce that in January 2006, Silvia Geise, IHEU’s representative at the Council of Europe, was elected vice president of the Liaison Committee of the Conference of Council of Europe’s International NGOs. Silvia, who had served as deputy to IHEU’s main representative Alexandre Marius Dées de Sterio for the past five years, switched functions with him this January. Silvia was first elected by the NGOs to the Liaison Committee, and was then elected their vice president with a three year mandate.