The Committee of Ministers (CM) is the statutory decision-making body of the Council of Europe. Its role and functions are defined in detail in Chapter IV of the Statute. It is composed of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Member States. The Committee meets once a year at ministerial level and weekly at the level of Delegates (the Permanent Representatives of the member states to the Council of Europe). The CM uses the work of numerous intergovernmental committees with input from national experts who are responsible for preparing, for example, texts of recommendations (soft law) and conventions (hard law) which are then discussed and adopted by the CM.

In the field of human rights, the Human Rights Steering Committee is responsible for standard setting and follow-up. Its work is divided into two main branches: firstly, the questions relating to the system of the European Convention on Human Rights, from national implementation, to the functioning of the European Court of Human Rights, the enforcement of Court judgments, including its review by the Committee of Ministers; and secondly, the development of human rights standards in emerging or controversial areas. 

The Steering Committee on Anti-discrimination, Diversity and Inclusion (CDADI) is one of the other subsidiary bodies of the CM. Established in 2019, CDADI aims to guide the CoE’s intergovernmental work to promote equality and build more inclusive societies that offer adequate protection from discrimination and hatred and respect for diversity, With particular attention to the situation of Roma and Sinti, the rights of LGBTI people, the fight against hate crimes and intercultural integration of migrants. Italy with the Director General of the National Office Against Racial Discrimination (UNAR) chaired the first work of the (CDADI) which led to the adoption of two important recommendations of the CM against hate speech and hate crimes.