Since 2013, Right to Die Europe (RtD-Europe) has taken a participatory status (INGO) with the Council of Europe (CoE). This European institution – amongst others – engages with human rights and therefore has a special Human Rights Committee. The conference of INGO’s, working along the same lines as the CoE, asked Aycke Smook – RtD-Europe’s President – to be nominated for the post of Vice-Chair of the (INGO) Human Rights Committee. In a meeting of INGO’s he lost to a more experienced (Dutch) delegate but succeeded in getting 12 out of 68 valid votes, a remarkable event, because as he said:
“… it was the first time that this – for many very controversial – issue was formally debated in the General Assembly of INGO’s.”