The European Social Charter (alongside the case-law of the European Committee of Social Rights) forms the most striking binding legal source for young people’s social rights, providing a framework for synergies with both the European Union and the Council of Europe’s other instruments and mechanisms in this area. In the current times of pandemic, the most important thing is preventing the COVID-19 crisis (which has economic, political and social dimensions) from becoming a crisis of values among young people. From this perspective, on the one hand, the paper focuses on access of young people to education, labour market and housing. On the other hand, it proposes measures aimed at raising awareness of the Social Charter among young people and to capitalise on it in practice instead of insisting on drafting a specific European instrument on their rights. Finally, the author insists that all Council of Europe Member States should accept (if they have not yet done so) in the spirit of the “Turin process,”the collective complaints procedure and the revised European Social Charter.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

* This paper has its origin on the research done by the author for the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe [leading to its Resolution 442 (2019) and Recommendation 433 (2019) on Social Rights of Young People: The Role of Local and Regional Authorities] and has been updated in the framework of the Research Group “Human Rights and the European Social Charter”(University of Valencia, Spain, reference: GIUV2013‐148).

The European Social Charter (alongside the case-law of the European Committee of Social Rights) forms the most striking binding legal source for young people’s social rights, providing a framework for synergies with both the European Union and the Council of Europe’s other instruments and mechanisms in this area. In the current times of pandemic, the most important thing is preventing the COVID-19 crisis (which has economic, political and social dimensions) from becoming a crisis of values among young people. From this perspective, on the one hand, the paper focuses on access of young people to education, labour market and housing. On the other hand, it proposes measures aimed at raising awareness of the Social Charter among young people and to capitalise on it in practice instead of insisting on drafting a specific European instrument on their rights. Finally, the author insists that all Council of Europe Member States should accept (if they have not yet done so) in the spirit of the “Turin process,”the collective complaints procedure and the revised European Social Charter.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

* This paper has its origin on the research done by the author for the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe [leading to its Resolution 442 (2019) and Recommendation 433 (2019) on Social Rights of Young People: The Role of Local and Regional Authorities] and has been updated in the framework of the Research Group “Human Rights and the European Social Charter”(University of Valencia, Spain, reference: GIUV2013‐148).