Brussels. “Human rights at local level” will be the main theme for the 2011 European Local Democracy Week (ELDW) held in October 2011. The “European Local Democracy Week” (ELDW) is an annual European event with simultaneous national and local events organised by participating local authorities in all Council of Europe member States. When European Local Democracy Week 2010 took place, over 130 local authorities took up the invitation. In 2011, the Congress would like to expand this participation still further and involve the greatest possible number of local and regional authorities from the 47 member states. Said John Warmisham (United Kingdom, SOC) on the main theme human rights: “Realisation of these rights is undeniably a priority, if we want to promote more inclusive communities and to ensure social cohesion and good local governance”.  Warmisham is a member of the Congress and the new political co-ordinator for ELDW.

The conditions for taking part in ELDW and full information for participants are available from www.coe.int/demoweek