Migration and the European Convention on Human Rights will be the items on the agenda of an informal ministerial conference that will take place in Strasbourg on December 10th. The initiative has been advanced by Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, who explained that migration issues are “high on the agenda of countries and people across Europe”, while “the European Convention on Human Rights provides the framework we need to address these issues effectively and responsibly”. The conference “is intended to provide clear guidance to the organisation, shaping its future work in this area at the political level”, the Council explained in a statement, while Berset pointed out: “Our task is not to weaken the Convention, but to keep it strong and relevant — to ensure that liberty and security, justice and responsibility, are held in balance”. On the background, an intensive political debate within and among many member states of the Council of Europe about migration issues, including the relationship between the Convention and national migration control measures. The time has come “to bring those discussions within the framework of the Council of Europe”, which is also working on migrant smuggling and on other initiatives to deal with pressing migration issues and related policies.