Council of Europe

Extract

At a meeting in Strasbourg during the first week of August 1951, the Committee of Ministers made the following decisions: 1) referred back to a committee of experts the problem of refugees; 2) approved the addition of clauses guaranteeing the right to hold property, the right of parents to send their children to church schools and the right to participate in free elections, to the European Convention on Human Rights; 3) agreed to a change in the rules of procedure permitting the ministers, by unanimous decision, to allow those states having no interest in a particular action to abstain from voting on it. This last change would permit such projects as the Schuman Plan to be approved by ministers of the interested countries without involving others.