newsitems CoE Justice Quality Head Leyenberger to EuroFora: Risk of Politicaly Motivated Court not negligeable
CoE Justice Quality Head Leyenberger to EuroFora: Risk of Politicaly Motivated Court not negligeable
*Strasbourg/CoE/Angelo Marcopolo/- Recent Facts observed in several CoE Member Countries reveal that Politicaly Motivated and/or Partial Justice might become a real Risk against Fundamental Principles of Rule of Law and Democracy, regardless of, and beyond the more or less Technical Efficiency of one or another National System of Courts, if this crucial point is not seriously examined and dealt with, replied in substance CoE's experienced Director for Independence and Efficiency of Justice, Christophe Leyenberger, to relevant "EuroFora"s Questions, on the occasion of the presentation of the 2014 Annual Edition of the Report on "Efficiency of Justice" throughout CoE's PanEuropean area covering more than 800 Millions of People, (See Infra).
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- "During recent years there have been many and various Criticisms concerning an alleged "Political Motivation" of some courts' decisions throughout Europe :
- Even if it might not always be the 1st time, nevertheless, as far as it concerns specifically the elementary Freedoms and Human Rights, eventually the Prosecution, of some Democratically Elected Leaders of Political Parties, and/or (F.) Heads of State, in differend Countries, from the North to the South of Europe, and from the East to West, during the last 3 or 4 Years, various cases raise Critical Questions regarding the alleged Political Motivations of certain Persons and/or Groups inside the Courts' system".
- Such incidents occur "in a way which obviously might affect the Trust of the Public to the Quality of Justice -i.e. one of your (CoE's) Landmarks - , if it's not efficiently addressed before it might provoke irreversible consequences, "EuroFora" observed, from the outset.
-"How do you feel about that, how do you think that things really are in this regard, and what should be done, in order to have the Trust of the Public ?', we asked.
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- Indeed, "What you've said are, without any doubt, Facts that we (CoE) observe inside certain Member States", replied Positively from the start, the experienced CoE's Director for Independence and Efficiency of Justice, Stephane Leyenberger.
- So, "it's Unfortunate that this (issue) is not included in the work if CoE's PanEuropean Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ)", whose Annual Results for 2013-2014 was presenting Leyenberger.
- "And, through the Informations that we (CoE) receive" via that mechanism, "we are not (yet) at all in a position to have an overall picture of the Abuse of Justice for Political Motivations, and/or eventual problems of Corruption in this domain", he regretted.
- On the contrary, "what we (the CEPEJ) try to do here is to simply watch how Justice works in everyday life. But even this allows, however, to make an interesting Observation", (concerning "EuroFora"s Question : Comp. Supra) :
>>> - "It's not merely because a given system might, eventually, work more or less properly, in everyday life, that it would also be without any problems of Manipulation of Justice or of Abuse of Justice for Political Motivations", he warned.
- "That's what we (CoE) underline also in our (CEPEJ's 2014) Conclusions, in fine", Leyenberger pointed out, (See Infra).
=> In fact: - "Even if I don't have any elements to give you now, nevertheless, it's true, indeed, that, even if we (CoE) might say that certain Courts' Systems are quite Efficient (Technically) in certain States, however, this doesn't mean at all that, concerning the Fundamental Principles of Law and the Independence of Justice, they wouldn't have several Problems to denounce and solve"....
- "But, that's another kind of work", concluded, smiling, the competrent CoE's Director for the Independence and Efficiency of Justice, in reply to the above-mentioned "EuroFora"s Question.
>>> Indeed, the General Conclusions of CoE's 2014 PanEuropean Report on the Efficiency of Juctice, strongly stress the fact that : - Any substantial "Evaluation must take fully into account the Specificity of the Public Service of Justice: it must be based on the Essential Principles of the Independence of the judiciary and the Impartiality of judges, which are Pillars in any state governed by the Rule of Law. Policy-makers and judicial practitioners shall work towards a greater Efficiency of their judicial systems, only while fully Complying with these Fundamental Principles", (Comp. Supra).
This overall CoE's Conclusion, (already pinpointed by Leyenberger at his Replies to "EuroFora"s Questions : Comp. Supra), sticks perfectly well with the recently announced intention of experienced President of the Biggest EU political Party : that of ChristianDemocrats/EPP, Joseph Daul, to launch a Europe-wide Initiative for systematic and thorough Investigations of all denounced incidents where Facts clearly raise Critical Questions on Risks of Abuses which may be committed by some Politicaly Motivated and/or Partial National Judges, obviously Dangerous both for Civic Liberties and Democracy, particularly if they systematically target and harass certain Democratically Elected Leaders of the People, and/or Political Dissidents.
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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)...