During the handover ceremony, Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic, who will represent his country's chairmanship, presented a 14-page presentation of Serbia's six-month action plan, saying the Council of Europe would stay in line with the principles of rule of law and respect for human rights.
Although the rotation is a standing CoE procedure, Serbia's chairmanship sparked protests across Europe.
Radio France Info, a French news broadcaster, cited complaints from officials such as the chief prosecutor of the War Crimes Tribunal Carla del Ponte and rights NGOs such as Human Rights Watch, who insisted that a country that has failed to bring war criminals to justice does not deserve to chair the rights-focused body.
The tribunal on former Yugoslavia has yet to find Serbian General Ratko Mladic and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to try them for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
The Committee of Ministers is the decision-making body at the Council of Europe and comprises foreign ministers. The chairmanship rotates every six months, changing in the English alphabetical order of member states.
