Member States
Starting with 18 member states, soon all member states of the Council of Europe joined the Venice Commission and since 2002 non-European states can also become full members. Today, as of 2012, the Commission counts 58 member states – the 47 member states of the Council of Europe and 11 other countries. Belarus is as associate member and there are six observers. The European Commission, Palestinian National Authority and South Africa have a special co-operation status similar to that of the observers. The EU Committee of the Regions, OSCE/ODIHR and IACL/AIDC (The International Association of Constitutional Law | Association internationale de droit constitutionnel) participate in the plenary sessions of the Commission.
Read more about this topic: Venice Commission
Famous quotes containing the words member and/or states:
“Oh, had I received the education I desired, had I been bred to the profession of the law, I might have been a useful member of society, and instead of myself and my property being taken care of, I might have been a protector of the helpless, a pleader for the poor and unfortunate.”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“The traveler to the United States will do well ... to prepare himself for the class-consciousness of the natives. This differs from the already familiar English version in being more extreme and based more firmly on the conviction that the class to which the speaker belongs is inherently superior to all others.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)