Society and history

Council of Europe

Council of Europe: intergovernmental organisation founded 5 May 1949 by the Treaty of London, seated in Strasbourg; 46 member states, 700 million citizens; distinct from the EU; promotes human rights, democracy, rule of law via the ECHR; expelled Russia in 2022.

Council of Europe Convention on the Avoidance of Statelessness in Relation to State Succession

CETS No. 200, a Council of Europe treaty adopted in Strasbourg on 19 May 2006 and in force since 1 May 2009, obliging successor and predecessor states to prevent statelessness when states succeed one another; seven states party.

Oct 10, 2026

Council of Europe Development Bank

The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) is a multilateral development bank with an exclusively social mandate, founded in 1956 and owned by 43 European member states.

Council of Five Elders

The Council of Five Elders (五大老) was a council of five powerful daimyo, formed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi around 1598 to govern for his young son Hideyori.

Council of Five Hundred

Council of Five Hundred (Conseil des Cinq-Cents), lower house of the French Directory legislature under the Constitution of Year III (1795); 500 members aged 30+, exclusive right to propose laws; ended by the 18 Brumaire coup in 1799.

Council of Florence

The Council of Florence (Флорентийская уния) produced the 1439 union of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, which Metropolitan Isidore signed but Grand Prince Vasily II rejected, deposing him.

Council of Four Lands

The Council of Four Lands, known in Hebrew as Va'ad Arba Aratsot, was the central body of Jewish self-government in Poland from about 1580 to 1764.

Sep 23, 2026

Council of Gohains

The Council of Gohains (গোহাঁই) was the council of three great hereditary councillors of the Ahom kingdom, begun by Sukaphaa with the Burhagohain and Borgohain.

Council of Hiereia (754)

The Council of Hiereia (Σύνοδος Ἱερείας) was an iconoclast church synod convened by Emperor Constantine V in 754 at Hieria, condemning the veneration of icons.

Council of Jerusalem

Council of Jerusalem (Apostolic Council), c. AD 48-49: meeting of apostles and elders in Acts 15 and Galatians 2 deciding Gentile Christians need no circumcision; issued the fourfold Apostolic Decree on food, blood, and immorality.

Council of Labor and Defense

The Council of Labor and Defense (Совет труда и обороны) was the supreme Soviet economic and defense body, created in 1918 and chaired by Lenin, then Rykov and Molotov.

Council of Lithuania

The Council of Lithuania, or Lietuvos Taryba, was elected by the Vilnius Conference in 1917 and adopted the Act of Independence of Lithuania on 16 February 1918.

Council of Liubech (1097)

The Council of Liubech (Любечский съезд) was a 1097 meeting of six Kievan Rus' princes who agreed to keep their patrimonies and unite against the Cumans.

Council of Lords

The Council of Lords (Совет господ) was the boyar council of the medieval Novgorod Republic, which in practice governed Novgorod in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Council of Lords of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

The Council of Lords of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Ponų taryba, Pany-rada) was the Grand Duchy's highest governing body, legally entrenched by the 1492 privilege of Alexander Jagiellon.

Council of Lyubech

The Council of Lyubech (Любечский съезд) was a congress of six Kievan Rus' princes held at Lyubech on the Dnieper in October 1097, proclaiming "each shall keep his patrimony."

Council of Ministers

The Council of Ministers (Совет министров) was the unified cabinet of the Russian Empire, transformed by ukase on 19 October 1905 and succeeded by the Provisional Government in 1917.

Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union

The Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (Совет министров СССР) was the government of the USSR, created in 1946 and first headed by Joseph Stalin.

Council of Mitmaq

The Council of Mitmaq was an Ethiopian Church council convoked by Emperor Zara Yaqob in 1450 at Dabra Mətmaq in Shawa, making both Saturday and Sunday Sabbath observance mandatory.

Council of National Unity

The Council of National Unity, Rada Jedności Narodowej, was the underground parliament of the Polish Underground State, functioning in occupied Poland from January 1944 until July 1945.

Council of People's Commissars

The Council of People's Commissars (Совет народных комиссаров), known as Sovnarkom, was the government of Soviet Russia and then the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1946.

Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR

The Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR (Рада Народних Комісарів УРСР), known as Radnarkom, was the government of Soviet Ukraine from 1919 to 1946.

Council of People's Commissars of the USSR

The Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, or Sovnarkom, was the Soviet government from 1923 to 1946, chaired by Lenin, Rykov, Molotov, and Stalin.

Council of Preslav (893)

The Council of Preslav (Преславският събор) was an 893 assembly in the First Bulgarian Empire that enthroned Simeon I and adopted Slavic for church and state.

Council of Representatives of Iraq

Council of Representatives of Iraq (مجلس النواب العراقي), unicameral federal parliament: 329 seats, 4-year term, 83-seat women's quota, elects the president, and forms the government under Article 76 timelines.

Council of State (Poland)

The Council of State (Rada Państwa) was the collegial head of state of communist Poland from 1952 to 1989, abolished in favor of the presidency.

Council of State of Siam

The Council of State of Siam (สภาที่ปรึกษาราชการแผ่นดิน) was an advisory body created by King Chulalongkorn in 1874 on the model of the French Conseil d'État, abolished in 1894.

Council of the European Union

Council of the European Union (Council of Ministers): EU institution where ministers of the 27 member states negotiate and adopt EU laws with the European Parliament, using qualified majority voting, with a six-month rotating presidency; distinct from the European Council and the Council of Europe.

Council of the Indies

The Council of the Indies, or Real y Supremo Consejo de las Indias, was the Spanish royal council governing Spanish America from 1524 to 1834.