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.
Main Menu
Home Press Deontology/Ethics 2009 Innovation Year EU endorses EuroFora's idea Multi-Lingual FORUM Subscribers/Donors FAQs Advanced search EuroFora supports Seabird newsitems In Brief European Headquarters' MAPs CoE Journalists Protection Platform
BRIEF NEWS
- 00:00 - 02.06.2021
- 00:00 - 18.10.2020
- 00:00 - 19.06.2020
- 00:00 - 18.05.2020
- 00:00 - 20.04.2020
- 00:00 - 02.02.2020
- 00:00 - 09.12.2019
- 00:00 - 27.11.2019
- 00:00 - 16.11.2019
Popular
- Yes, we could have prevented Ferguson riots says World Democracy Forum's Young American NGO to ERFRA
- Spanish People Elect CenterRIGHT Majority with 1st Party and Total of 178 MPs (6 More than the Left)
- Pflimlin's vision
- The European Athletic "Dream Team", after Barcelona 2010 Sport Championship Results
- Source Conseil d'Europe à ERFRA: Debatre Liberté d'Opposants à Loi livrant Mariage+Enfants à Homos ?
- Head of BioEthics InterGroup, MEP Peter Liese : "Embryonic stem cell research reaching its END" !?
- Spain: Jailed Turkish Terror suspect with Explosive,Drones,Chechen accomplices stirs Merah+ Burgas ?
- UN Head Ban Ki Moon at CoE World Democracy Forum : - "Listen to the People !"
Latest News
- Test Photos (f.ex.+ Invit to EU + Korea Peace meeting)
- EUOmbudsmen Conference 2022: Digital Gaps affect People's Trust threaten EF Project on EU Future ?
- French Election : Black Out on Virus, but Obligation for Fake 'Vaccines" Challenged
- Both French Presidential Candidates point at "Humanism" in crucial times...
- France : Zemmour = Outsider may become Game Changer in Presidential + Parliamentary Elections 2022
Statistics
Посетителей: 63758727Archive
Login Form
Syndicate
Other Menu
Strategically located between Paris and Prague, Strasbourg offered a natural location for the French and Czech EU 2008 and 2009 Presidencies to tune their agendas for a resolute European move towards Renewable Energies, during an exceptional Joint Parliamentary meeting on "Energy and Sustainable Development", co-organized here by the Presidents of EU Parliament, Hans Gert Poettering, French National Assembly, Bernard Accoyer, and Senate, Gerard Larcher, on November 20 and 21.
Concluded by a busy-looking French super-Minister of Energy, Environment and Regional planning, Jean-Louis Borloo, the exceptional gathering of Top MPs from all 27 EU States' Parliaments hoped that a Ministerial meeting prepared by Borloo, will pave the way to an overall agreement at the level of EU Heads of State and Government Summit chaired on December 2008 by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, allowing the next EU chair, the Czech Republic, to start working from the beginning of 2009 on concrete measures.
Speaking to "EuroFora" President Accoyer resumed the general feeling by stressing that "Europe has no Oil-Gas resources, but an important Scientific-Technologic potential. Therefore, we must develop Renewable Energy sources". "Since the Sun is the most abundant and free RES, we must do the outmost to boost Solar Energy" solutions, he added, at the eve of a special meeting on Solar energy and the Mediterranean organised by Borloo on Saturday.
Oil-gas supplies' security and diversification were also examined by the EU gathering, after which, President Accoyer replied to our question on risks of long, expensive and fragile pipe-lines' projects, crossing through foreign countries out of the EU, compared to new possibilities for Sea and River Ship direct EU transport even of Gas, thanks to New Liquification technologies : - "We have just écreated the Union for the Mediterranean for concrete projects like these", Accoyer stressed, speaking of Sea-River Ship Highways, fundeable under EU's TENS programs.
Rapporteur on "Energy innovation and sustainable development", Dr. Bedrich Moldan, vice-President of Czech Senate's Environment and Regional Development Committee, added that Climat issues, price uncertainties and diminution of accessible Fossil energies, played together with EU's RST potential in order to make RES both a need and "an opportunity". However, in cases as "Solar Energy, even if the main Scientific ideas are already here, we have to make some technologic breakthroughs in order to find how to produce it on a large scale, store and transport it", Dr. Moldan added to "EuroFora".
Czech interest for RES was also expressed, earlier in Strasbourg, by Jan Kohout, the deputy Minister pf Foreign Affairs who participated to a workshop on "Renewable Energies" organized by the French EU 2008 Presidency : - "The focus is on Development", he told us.
On this and other RES issues, Dr. Moldan anounced the Czech EU 2009 chair's intention to organize an important 2-days Conference on Renewable Energies and Sustainable Development late January 2009 at nearby Prague.