The 8th ''Liet International'' minority song contest took place in Udine, Italy on 19 November 2011. Bands performing in Asturian, Sami, Frisian, Irish, Karelian, Latgalian, Gaelic, Low German, Friulian and Sardinian competed for a prize sponsored by the Council of Europe, which has a special Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The jury award went to the young Frisian singer-songwriter Janna Eijer from the village of Jobbegea in the Netherlands. The Coffeeshock Company, a Croatian band from Burgenland in Austria, won the public award.

To mark Human Rights Day on December 10 the Council of Europe has produced a TV spot highlighting the work of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT). The spot, which includes some images provided by Amnesty, is currently available in English and Russian, with other linguistic versions planned for the near future. For Russian version of the video, please click on "original" in the video language menu.

As our world becomes ever more dependent on information and communication technologies, it is also increasingly vulnerable to cybercrime, including identity theft, financial fraud, cyber attacks and the misuse of social networks. Many of these crimes are committed not against states or organisations, but against individuals, who can have their privacy invaded by hackers, fraudsters and, in the case of children, paedophiles.