"I leave my office with a feeling of satisfaction for the work I have carried out, as well as a feeling of regret for the huge amount of things that are still to be done": Alvaro Gil Robles will leave tomorrow, after six and a half years’ work, his post as a commissioner for human rights of the Council of Europe. In the Strasbourg head-office of the organisation that brings together 46 member states, he presented a long final report in which he goes through the initiatives, the success stories and the "pending problems" in the area of human rights. Gil Robles highlights in particular the "need to work harder to fight discrimination, integrate immigrants and national minorities": the continental scenario portrayed by the report covers several juridical, socio-political and cultural issues about this topic, and alerts to the "danger of a possible decrease in the standards of the fight against international terrorism". The outgoing commissioner also draws attention to the many conflicts that exist in Europe today: during his office, Gil Robles dealt with the Balkans, Ukraine, Belarus and the former Soviet Republics. The new commissioner, the Swedish Thomas Hammarberg, will take office on April 3rd.
