newsitems Venice Commission's President, Prof. Helgesen to EuroFora : Human Rights Defenders need protection
Venice Commission's President, Prof. Helgesen to EuroFora : Human Rights Defenders need protection
Venice Commission's President, Professor Jan Helgelsen from Norway, replying to "EuroFora"'s questions.
Therefore, CoE's prestigious Legal Experts' body might undertake to make a Study on this issue covering all its 47 MemberStates, including on the implementation of ECHR's case-law on States' obligation to protect Journalists working on Human Rights' issues and/or fully investigate their murders in order to prevent similar cases in Future, Helgelsen accepted responding positively to "EuroFora"s query.
A decade later, the issue was recently taken up in Europe by CoE's Commissioner on Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, strongly supported by a 2009 Resolution adopted by CoE's Assembly on a Report by German ChristianDemocrat MEP, Holger Haibach.
- "As a Human Rights Professor, I think that even today, after a Decade, it's important : You can see that Human Rights Defenders' rights are violated in several parts of the World, so it's still an on-going issue, that I wouldn't exclude to Study in Future on the relations of Governments to Human Rights Defenders"
- Because "it's not only in Totalitarian regimes that you can find that. You can find it also in Democracies" : "There is an interesting conflict between Democracy and rule of Law : More and more Governments, even in Democracies, are really treating Human Rights Defenders harshly, because they claim that Human Rights Defenders tarnish Democracy".
But, "Venice Commission is based on 2 Pillars : Democracy and Rule of Law. And we (CoE) always say that both pillars are equally important. We (CoE) cannot accept that a Democracy violates Human Rights or Minorities' rights".
- "Human Rights' Defenders are close to my Heart... I was, indeed drafting this Declaration at the UN for years", and, even if Venice Commission has not yet specifically done anything in this field, I wouldn't exclude to take this issue on the Agenda for a Report", Helgelsen concluded.
Venice Commission's readiness to extend such studies to all CoE Member States and not only to former "Eastern" European Countries, as in the past, was confirmed also by the experienced Director of its Secretariat, Gianni Buquicchio of Italy :
- "When Venice Commission started, back in 1989, it was conceived to serve all European Countries. But soon Berlin wall fell down, and a huge area opened to help Eastern European Countries' constitutional reforms. However, its competence covers not only Constitutions, but also Elections, Constitutional Justice, Solutions to conflicts, Human Rights, etc", Often "at the invitation of the EU or UNO", whenever needed; fex. in frozen conflicts, we intervene on the sidelines of political negotiations. And recently we dealt also with old democracies such as Finland, the UK, Belgium, etc. but also Turkey.
- Thus, "we (CoE) could do a Study on such kind of issues too", replied Buquicchio to another "EuroFora" Question on the need to ensure efficient investigations on a series of murders of Journalists working on Human Rights, particularly when ECHR has already issued judgements condemning certain States, as f.ex. on Gongadze's case in Ukraine, on Newspaper "Ozger Ozgur"'s staff in Turkey, and on dissident Turkish Cypriot Adali's case in the Turkish-Occupied Territories of Cyprus.
But while in Gongadge's case CoE's Committee of Ministers still keeps a pressure on Ukranian Authorities to find and punish also those who had asked for the murder, well beyond the condemnation of 2 executors to 10 Years of Jail, on the contrary, on Adali's case, sheduled for June, it reportedly has proposed to ... "postpone" anew its examination, from March to June, and now from June to September 2009, surprisingly without giving even the slightesst information on what is going on...
Adali's murder case, in the Past, had been "stuck" also previously, pending
for a too long time inside ECHR's secretariat, but was "unblocked" also after "EuroFora" informed New York based "Committee to Protect Journalists" (CPJ) who called upon ECHR to really examine the case, despite obstacles and harassment denounced by the Victims' Wife, Ilkay, who visited twice Strasbourg.
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Ten Years of ECHR : 1998 - 2008 show need of Revival in 2009-2010 coinciding with 2009 EU Election
A threefold, coordinated move by new Top French Political actors in the 2009 EU Parliament Elections, expressed in Strasbourg a will to boost Europe's Political dimension close to Citizens' concerns, going from protection of Economy to defence of Human Rights.
The move met an exceptional ECHR's call for a "revival" of Human Rights' protection mechanism', in a Mega-Conference, early 2010.
Obviously focusing on June 2009 Elections to EU Parliament, it involved from the outset the recently nominated "dual" Head of French Governing Party (UMP) Michel BARNIER and Rachida DATI :
- "As President Sarkozy has clearly said, we (France) are in favor of a Strong, Sovereign and Independent, Political Europe, which protects its Citizens, and not for a large Super-Market, nor for a Europe under influence",
"This goes for everything, including Energy", added to "EuroFora" the experienced former EU Commissioner, Minister of Foreign affairs, currently of Agriculture and Sarkozy's new pick as Leader of the Governing party UMP to EU 2009 Election, Michel BARNIER .
- Human Rights are important because they are at the Heart of the Political Europe that we aspire for : I.e. a Europe able to act and protect its Citizens, stressed also the New French Minister for European affairs, Bruno LE MAIRE, while meeting Strasbourg's Journalists at his first visit to the CoE.
This is one of the main interests for CoE, which is also a natural place for cooperation between EU countries and Russia or Turkey, which was recently helpful at the Middle East crisis, he added.
The move gained momentum with French Minister of Justice, Rachida Dati's main observations at ECHR's 5Oth Anniversary :
- "While we are seeking Europe's Borders and Identity, you (ECHR) remind us also of its Values", Human Rights, Dati noted.
Citizens seek more and more often ECHR's help, and the tempo accelerates, Europa awaits a symbol, while national legal orders are not freezed
And she expressed "support" to ECHR President Jean-Paul Costa's call to satisfy the vital need to revigorate the PanEuropean Court by deciding big changes at a High-Level Conference open to a large audience, a kind of "Etats Generaux" of Human Rights, at the beginning of 2010.
It's not so much the recently growing number of applications for Russia or Ukraine etc, which seems to be Costa's main concern : In fact, the cases declared "admissible" are much fewer...
But rather the persistent violations of Human Rights, sometimes very grave (ie. murders, torture, abritrary deprivation of liberty, oppression of freedom of speech, destructions of homes/properties, etc), despite numerous, repeated condemnations by ECHR. So that CoE's Ministers, due to "supervise execution" of ECHR's judgements, are overloaded.
F.ex. most Media noted that Turkey still remains, even in 2008, the 1st among 47 CoE member States in the number of condemnations by ECHR : 257, compared to 233 for Russia, with a population more than the double..
The problem is that it's not the 1st time at all : During all the last Decade 1998-2008, Turkey was condemned by ECHR much more than any other State, and for particularly grave violations :
- 1.652 condemnations, compared to 605 for Russia, 548 for Poland, 494 for France, 476 for Ukraine, etc.
Italy's second place with 1.394 condemnations is a misleading false appearance : In fact, most of them (999) concern mere "procedural delays" in national courts. Same for France.
On the contrary, Turkey was condemned 180 times for Killings, 192 times for Torture or Inhuman/Degrading treatments, 340 times for arbitrary deprivation of Liberty, 528 times for "Unfair trial", and 169 times for oppression of Freedom of speech, (etc). And the latest, 2008 numbers, indicate no change in this trend, (See supra).
The current Spanish CoE Presidency (November 2008 - May 2009) has made of the implementation of ECHR's judgements its 1st Priority.
ECHR's President, Jean-Paul Costa, stressed in its 2009 Annual Press Conference, CoE Member States' obligation to implement the judgements, according to Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Moreover, if CoE's Committee of Ministers delays to ensure implementation, then, the repetition of violations in similar cases provokes a multiplication of complaints tabled to the Court, which overload the mecanism for the protection of Human Rights, denounced Costa.
A series of Debates on "the situation of Human Rights in Europe", focusing on the "need to fight against Impunity" of perpetrators of grave crimes, is currently prepared by CoE's Parliamentary Assembly for the session of June 2009.
The final Timing comes shortly AFTER the EU Elections, but the main Reports should have been adopted before.
Meanwhile, French President Sarkozy and German Chancelor Merkel's recent call "for a Political Europe" in 2009 EU Elections (See earlier "correspondence from Paris, Elysee Palace), seems more and more endorsed also by other EU Countries' Top MEPs :
Thus, f.ex., EU Parliament's 1st vice-President, Greek MEP Mrs Rodi KRATSA, speaking to "EuroFora", agreed that 2009 EU Election would be a "naturally good" opportunity to debate what really interests EU Citizens : "The Future of a Political Europe, able to face the Economic Crisis, with a Culture and identity which attracts the People"
(Photo taken earlier during Sarkozy's 1st visit at EU Parliament, in 2007 : Sarkozy and Merkel's Ideas for a Political Europe inspire also other EU politicians accross the continent)...