United for rights

“For the sake of the 800 million people the Strasbourg Court serves, we need to reform it so that it is true to its original purpose”, said British Prime Minister David Cameron, in his address on the third day of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) ongoing until January 27 in the Alsatian capital. “Already 47 members are agreed on this, and great work has been done. Now we would like to use our Chairmanship (Committee of Ministers, ed.’s note) to help progress that work. This is the right moment for reform – reforms that are practical, sensible and that enhance the reputation of the Court”.Unity and committment. Considering the challenges Europe is currently facing “it is essential to remain united and committed”, said the new president of the Assembly Jean-Claude Mignon speaking to Cameron. “Europe is facing new challenges: the economic and financial crisis and its impact on the eurozone, the crisis of representative democracy and the growing role of the Internet and social networks in politics, the rise of intolerance and extremism, revolutionary changes in our neighborhood”. In her last speech to the Assembly in her capacities as president of Finland, on January 25 Tarja Halonen announced the upcoming meeting of European Presidents – the so-called “Arraiolos Group” – that will discuss the issue of racism, and invited CoE Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland, to attend. As regards the ongoing reform of the European Court of Human Rights Halonen underlined that “Member states bear the main responsibility for securing that the domestic courts assume their primary role in ensuring the protection of human rights”.“A common European space” of human rights. On January 25 representatives of PACE (47 Member States) and of the European Parliament have urged national governments – notably the UK and France – not to stand in the way of the EU signing up to the European Convention on Human Rights. (ECHR). “EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights will close a gaping hole in European human rights protection as, for the first time, the laws and actions of the EU itself will be subject to the same external scrutiny as those of 47 countries across Europe – including all of the EU member states”, declared in a joint statement Kerstin Lundgren (Sweden, PACE rapporteur on the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the Council of Europe, and Barbara Lochbihler MEP, Chair of the European Parliament Sub-Committee on Human Rights, ADLE). “The Lisbon Treaty – continues the declaration – has significantly increased the scope for EU action in areas which directly or indirectly affect human rights. With this increased responsibility, it is only right that there should also be increased accountability”. According to MEPs EU accession to the convention is also needed “to fully ensure consistency in the work of the Strasbourg and Luxembourg courts” and a vital first step towards creating a ‘common European space’ for human rights”. Conveying their concern “that the accession process is currently being sidetracked by political objections from the UK, and to a lesser extent France”, the two MEPs underline that the process is “a legal obligation for the EU under the Lisbon Treaty” which “cannot be derailed, as failure to fully incorporate the EU could serve to weaken the existing European system for human rights protection which has been put in place by the Council of Europe over the last 60 years and is envied worldwide”. Negotiations were opened in June 2010. “What is needed now is clear and unequivocal political commitment on the part of all 27 EU member states”, concludes the statement. New human rights Commissioner. On January 24 Nils Muižnieks was elected third Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights. Nils Muižnieks (Latvia) obtained 120 of the votes cast in the first round, an absolute majority. Frans Timmermans (Netherlands) obtained 92 votes and Pierre-Yves Monette (Belgium) 27. He will succeed Thomas Hammarberg (Sweden) starting April 1st 2012 and will remain in office for a non-renewable six-year mandate. Since 2005 he has been the member for Latvia of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). He is currently Director of the Advanced Social and Political Research Institute (ASPRI) at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Riga.