the right to nondiscrimination. the european commission against racism and intolerance – a monitoring body of the council of europe

Along the last six decades, the Council of Europe, as an international regional organization, generated a complex body of both binding and non-binding legal instruments. The importance of non-binding legal documents, also identified as European soft-law, is demonstrated by the Council of Europe’s constant and growing involvement in monitoring activities and the creation of non-conventional monitoring structures, particularly in the field of human rights. One such structure is the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), which, throughout its’ broad and complex areas of competence has helped define and consolidate the European framework in matters of broadly identified as racial discrimination. ECRI had also brought a substantial contribution to the adoption of the 12th Protocol 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and to the consolidation of related case law before the European Court for Human Rights (ECtHR).