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 European Municipalities and Regions linking towns from all over Europe. This process is improved through CEMR's close cooperation with the DG Education and Culture of the European Commission. Last but not least, CEMR is behind several political documents of significance to local and regional governance, such as the "Charter of Local Liberties" (adopted in 1953), which inspired the "Charter on Local Self-Government of the Council of Europe", adopted in 1985. It also launched the "European Charter for Equality of Women and Men in Local Life", which was adopted in 2006 and has been signed by more than 1,300 local and regional governments in Europe.