Tobacco Control and The Council of Europe: the Potential and Limits of the Collective Complaints Procedure of the European Social Charter

The role of the Council of Europe (CoE) in tobacco control remains largely unexplored. This paper aims to fill this gap, focusing on the CoE's European Social Charter. Article n of the Charter protects the right to health, and adequate tobacco control measures are necessary to respect this article. This paper examines the potential and limits of the Collective Complaints procedure, one of the two monitoring mechanisms of the Charter, as a means to evaluate the compliance of national tobacco control measures with Article n. It demonstrates that, so far, this mechanism has never been used in this way. However, although the Collective Complaints procedure presents several draw-backs, it should not be underestimated. Indeed, it possesses certain features, such as the collective nature of the complaint and the lack of the requirement of the exhaus-tion of domestic remedies, which might make it a particularly suitable tool for the abovementioned purpose.