Stepping up human rights

Today, January 28, the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) closes in Strasbourg. The Assembly was opened on January 24, as members of the Assembly stood in silence for the victims of the suicide bombing which, just a few hours before, blast Moscow’s Domodevodo’s airport killing 35 people and injuring over 150. It is a reminder of “a looming and omnipresent terrorist threat” said CoE Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland in his opening address. CoE-EU Partnership. In a resolution adopted on January 26, based on the report by Jean-Claude Mignon (France) on follow-up to reform of the Council of Europe, members of the Assembly reiterated their support for the first wave of measures introduced by the Secretary General to “reform the Organisation, revitalise it, make it more political and more geared to the needs of European citizens”. In this regard, the PACE proposed a number of lines along which these aims should be pursued and called, in particular, “for greater synergy between the Organisation’s organs, institutions and mechanisms”, “identifying political solutions to deal with the increasing congestion at the European Court of Human Rights”, “enhancing the scope of the conferences of specialised ministers” and establishing “a veritable strategic partnership” between the CoE and the EU. Organ trafficking. The Parliamentary Assembly called on the Albanian authorities and Kosovo administration to “co-operate unreservedly” with the international investigation of allegations of illicit trafficking in human organs of Serbian and Albanian prisoners by international organizations in the two Countries at the end of the 1990s. La resolution – approved on January 25 with a large majority vote (169 ayes, 8 noes and 14 abstensions) follows the presentation of the report by Dick Marty (Swizerland), which the same rapporteur describes as “collected evidence” (notably personal testimonies, ed.’s note) on which “international follow-up investigation” is demanded. In the 27-page document Marty states that some prisoners were brought to secret detention centres where organs were removed and taken abroad for transplantation. According to the rapporteur, current Kosovar Premier Hashim Thaci, who at the time was the leader of Kosovo’s Liberation Army (KLA), which controlled the centres, is also involved in the trafficking. “The truth and respect for Kosovar Albanians and for the victims of the crimes required the identification of the perpetrators of such crimes” Marty said, who also underlined the need to set up effective witness protection programmes. PACE demanded follow-up investigations into indications of secret detention centres, on disappearances linked to the Kosovo war, as well as “the collusion” between “organised criminal groups and political circles”. The Assembly equally demands that EULEX (European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, established in 2008 to promote the Rule of the Law in Kosovo after its proclaimed independence, ed.’s note) be given “a clear mandate” and “and high-level political support” to “fulfil its mandate”. Action on organized crime. ”The atrocities committed during the conflict and post-conflict period” risk “undermining the very foundations of our democracies and threatening the lives of our children”, said Serbian president Boris Tadic who called upon European countries to undertake a “strategic alliance” against “organized crime”, which “poisons democracy”. Europe is trying “to overcome the serious economic crisis”‘, but it must not forget that “it represents the cradle” of “democracy, rule of the law, and respect of human rights”. For this, it must guard itself against “the spread of intolerance and discrimination”, “the weakening of the social fabric, and the gap separating religious, ethnic and cultural communities”. Freedom of the press. In a debate on the state of media freedom the President of the European Federation of Journalists, Arne König, cautioned: “More still needs to be done to secure full respect for freedom of the media, guarantee journalists’ safety and protect their sources”. König recalled that 94 journalists were killed in the world in 2010, 6 of whom in Europe. He also criticised the entry into force on 1 January of a new Hungarian media law. It reflected, he said, “the emergence of a totalitarian approach to the media on the part of certain governments”. It is therefore important that all 47 CoE States “introduce the recommendations” released by the Conference of ministers for the media in Reykjavik (2009) “within their national legislations”. Dunja Mijatovic (OSCE) added, “Too often governments invoke the fight against terrorism and national security as grounds for restrictive legislation”. Finally, the Parliamentary Assembly declared that the release of information with identified journalistic sources “should be confined to exceptional cases” in which “the legitimate need to disseminate the news is evidently greater than public interest to its non-dissemination”.