In Strasbourg, on 10 March 1976, Council of Europe member states open for signature the European Convention for the Protection of Animals kept for Farming Purposes (Farm Animal Convention; CETS No. 87). The official languages are English and French; the depositary is the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The Convention enters into force on 10 September 1978, after four ratifications.

The text defines ‘animals’ and modern intensive stock-farming systems. General principles require farm animals to have housing, food and care appropriate to their physiological and ethological needs. Parties must take the measures needed to avoid unnecessary suffering. Unlike other CoE animal-welfare conventions, this one is a framework instrument, open to further elaboration.

After the 1968 animal-transport convention, the Parliamentary Assembly asked for general principles on intensive farming; in 1971 the Committee of Ministers set up an ad hoc committee of experts, culminating in the 1976 text. In 1979 a Standing Committee was created to issue species-specific recommendations (poultry, pigs, cattle, sheep and goats, calves, ratites, ducks, geese, fur animals).

Standing Committee recommendations have the same legal status as the Convention’s provisions; intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations (including ISAE, WSPA, Eurogroup for Animals) may send ethology experts to consultations. Parties must translate recommendations into national law and, where relevant, EU law.

On 6 February 1992 a Protocol of Amendment (CETS 145) was adopted on biotechnology and on-farm killing; it is not yet in force, lacking ratifications by all then-Parties. By 2021 the EU and 33 states had ratified or acceded to the 1976 Convention; Estonia had only signed.

The Strasbourg Convention of 10 March 1976 remains a core European instrument for farm animal protection in Council of Europe law.

Image: Palais de l'Europe, Strasbourg; Wikimedia Commons. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: European Convention for the Protection of Animals kept for Farming Purposes. Treaty text: European Convention for the Protection of Animals kept for Farming Purposes (CETS No. 087).