European Treaty Series - No. 163
European Social Charter (Revised)
Strasbourg, 3.V.1996
Preamble
The governments signatory hereto, being members of the Council of Europe,
Considering that the aim of the Council of Europe is the achievement of greater unity between
its members for the purpose of safeguarding and realising the ideals and principles which are
their common heritage and of facilitating their economic and social progress, in particular by
the maintenance and further realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms;
Considering that in the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms signed at Rome on 4 November 1950, and the Protocols thereto, the member
States of the Council of Europe agreed to secure to their populations the civil and political
rights and freedoms therein specified;
Considering that in the European Social Charter opened for signature in Turin on 18 October
1961 and the Protocols thereto, the member States of the Council of Europe agreed to secure
to their populations the social rights specified therein in order to improve their standard of
living and their social well-being;
Recalling that the Ministerial Conference on Human Rights held in Rome on 5 November
1990 stressed the need, on the one hand, to preserve the indivisible nature of all human
rights, be they civil, political, economic, social or cultural and, on the other hand, to give the
European Social Charter fresh impetus;
Resolved, as was decided during the Ministerial Conference held in Turin on 21 and
22 October 1991, to update and adapt the substantive contents of the Charter in order to take
account in particular of the fundamental social changes which have occurred since the text
was adopted;
Recognising the advantage of embodying in a Revised Charter, designed progressively to
take the place of the European Social Charter, the rights guaranteed by the Charter as
amended, the rights guaranteed by the Additional Protocol of 1988 and to add new rights,
Have agreed as follows:
Part I
The Parties accept as the aim of their policy, to be pursued by all appropriate means both
national and international in character, the attainment of conditions in which the following
rights and principles may be effectively realised:
1
Everyone shall have the opportunity to earn his living in an occupation freely entered upon.