Council of Europe of the national parliaments of each member state. The Commissioner for Human Rights is an independent institution within the Council of Europe, mandated to promote awareness of and respect for human rights in the member states. The Secretary General heads the secretariat of the organisation. Other major CoE bodies include the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and the European Audiovisual Observatory. The headquarters of the Council of Europe are in Strasbourg, France. English and French are its two official languages. The Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress also use German, Italian, Russian, and Turkish for
Council of Europe former head of the Azerbaijan representation at the Council of Europe, has stated that Azerbaijan's delegation at the Council had 25 million dollars available to "bribe members of the delegations and Pace generally". Since 2014, Russia's voting rights have been suspended by the Council due to Moscow's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. In response, Russia has started to withhold its annual membership dues in the amount of 33 million euros, placing the institution under financial strain. Russia claims that its suspension by the Council is unfair and demands the restoration of voting rights. European Council secretary-general Thorbjørn Jagland organized a