During his visit to Portugal, Deputy Secretary General Bjørn Berge had meetings with the Portuguese Foreign Minister, Minister of Justice and the Speaker of the Parliament, and he addressed the North-South Prize Award Ceremony and the Executive Committee of the North-South Centre.
At the award ceremony, held at the Portuguese Parliament, the Deputy Secretary General congratulated the winners of the 2023 North-South Prize of the Council of Europe Ms. Amina Bouayach and the Global Campus of Human Rights for their notable contributions to the defence and promotion of human rights. "Ms. Amina Bouayach is the first woman to chair a human rights organisation in Morocco. As leader of the Moroccan Organisation for Human Rights she has led many campaigns, including a tireless dedication to abolishing the death penalty". The second winner today, the Global Campus for Human Rights, brings together eight regional programmes and 100 universities to form the world's largest network of human rights organisations "ensuring access to high quality human rights education for an extensive global community of academics, students and lawyers".
In his address to the Executive Committee of the North-South Centre, Mr Berge highlighted the importance of the external dimension of the Council of Europe in line with the Reykjavik decisions and the South Neighbourhood cooperation. He also reiterated the need to reinforce the capacity and membership of the North-South Centre, which can be very useful to promote Council of Europe's standards and values in and beyond Europe.
