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Αρχική arrow newsitems arrow ECHR Head Spielman to Eurofora: Ministers check Rulings Respect but EuroJudges also can act:=Art.1

ECHR Head Spielman to Eurofora: Ministers check Rulings Respect but EuroJudges also can act:=Art.1

Έχει γραφτεί από ACM
Thursday, 29 January 2015

 

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*Strasbourg/ECHR/Angelo Marcopolo/- Even if CoE's Committee of Ministers is the body responsible to supervise the Execution of ECHR's Judgements by the respondent States, nevertheless, EuroJudges are not completely disarmed in this regard, nor Victims of Human Rights' Violations, since the 1st Article of the PanEuropean Convention applies in cases of serious and persisting Failure from a State to respect ECHR's rulings, the President of the PanEuropean Court of Human Rights, Dean Spielmann, replied in substance to a relevant Question raised by "EuroFora".


Denouncing the fact that often, too long Delays and/or blatant Failure by some States to really implement ECHR's Judgements condemning them for serious Violations of Human Rights, in addition to overloading Strasbourg's PanEuropean mechanisms by repetitive cases, may also provoke grave Harm to the Victims, as f.ex. vis a vis Refugees/Displaced Persons who Die before being able to get anything back from their Family Homes and private properties, contrary to ECHR's case law, and/or "Missing" Persons' Families, who criticize too many Years of Delays in searching to find Material Evidence on what really Happened to their beloved ones, and/or doing the necessary "Forensic Investigations", (etc), with the Risk to loose or even Destroy Evidence of grave Crimes, (as it happened, f.ex., recently, with the Letters to the CoE by a Group of Families of Greek Cypriot Persons gone "Missing" since the 1974 Turkish Military Invasion and Occupation of the Northern Part of the Country), "EuroFora" asked Spielmann if Article 1 of the PanEuropean Convention could Help the Court to act for compliance.

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The 1st Article of the Convention on Human Rights asks from all CoE's Member States to "Ensure ...the Rights and Freedoms" defined by its text, to "everyone within their jurisdiction", and, obviously, No State could claim to do so, if it Failed, for too long, to do anything really efficient in order to Stop serious Violations of those Rights/Freedoms... A problem of notoriously growing Importance, particularly during recent years, which is due to be at  the Focus of a forthcoming PanEuropean Conference on "the Future of the Mechanisms for the Protection of Human Righst", organized by the current, Belgian Presidency of the CoE on February in Brussels, as Spielmann had just anounced, (placing it on the line of the landmark series of Annual Ministerial Conferences about ECHR's reform, which had notoriously started from 2010 at Interlaken, under Swiss chairmanship of the CoE : Comp. "EuroFora"s relevant NewsReports then from Interlaken).

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 - "You are absolutely Right !", replied positively from the start the experienced ECHR President to "EuroFora"s above mentioned Question.


>>> Because, indeed, "Article 1" of the PanEuropean Convention on Human Rights, "is of paramount Importance for the executon of ECHR's judgements, Spielmann underlined further, in this regard.

- Indeed, a State can't really Ensure the respect of Human Rights without Complying with ECHR's judgements, and, Article 1 refers to the Whole of the Convention, i.e. including its Article 46, which concerns the Implementation of Judgements, he observed in this regard.


=> This practically means that Citizens who are Victims of repeated and/or continuing Violations of Human Rights wouldn't necessarily be Hindered "from any action whatever, after an ECHR Judgement, whose execution would only conccern CoE's Committee of Ministers, exclusively.


Simply because they could, in this case, at least lodge also, later-on, a second Application, based, this time, mainly on the 1st Article of the PanEuropean Convention, denouncing the fact that the recalcitrant State failed in its Duty to secure the respect of this and/or that Human Right for persons in their jurisdiction, by not implementing a relevant ECHR's judgement for too many Years.

 

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+ Obviously, another possibility for ECHR to convince States to comply with ECHR Judgements might be to start cooperating systematicaly with EU Parliament, (along the lines highlighted by new EU Commission's President Jean-Claude Juncker, in a landmark 2009 Report about EU - CoE cooperation, that PanEuopean Heads of State/Governmets' Summit in Warsaw, had entrusted him to prepare back since 2004, concluding mainly on joint moves to apply Human Rights, could also be to use nearby EU Parliament's competences (f.ex. in EU Budget matters, etc) in a way allowing for Financial and/or other Sanctions to recalcitrant States, etc. Something that even Strasbourg's spectacular Proximity between the two key Institutions' Buildings might facilitate. 

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+ On this same occasion, President Spielman also confirmed another "EuroFora"s observation, about the unusual Fact that, apparently, "most" among the numerous individual applications concerning the Ukranian confllict are addressed against .. Both primarily interested States, and Ukraine itself, and Russia, instead of accusing only one of them.

 

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- "On the 2nd Question, concerning Events in Ukraine, Yes, you are Right, (many) Applications have been lodged against Both States", agreed with "EuroFora" ECHR's President, even if he found that, given that all these cases are "still Pending", he couldn't comment on them.


+However, speaking later-on to "EuroFora", ECHR's experienced Chief Registrar explained that many among those, really quite Unprecedented applications, apparentlly concern, at first sight,  "Missing" Persons, or Destuctions of Family Homes and private Properties, where it's not yet known who might be really responsible, while, at any case, this might also be due to the fact that probably noone among those States doesn't admit being "in Control" of the situation at the Autonomist Regions of Lugansk/Luhansk, and ECHR hasn't yet pronounced itself clearly on this point, (almost "as it had occured, in the recent Past, also for Transnistria", mutatis-mutandis, he reminded).

I.e. a probable issue of Article 1, concerning the question : - "Within" which State's "Jurisduction" the Victims are, (Comp. Supra)...

 

(../..)

***

("DraftNews", as already send to "EuroFora" Subscribers/Donors, earlier. A more accurate, full Final Version might be published asap).

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They voted to "freeze" UK Government's draft to put People in jail for 42 Days on "anti-terrorist" suspicion without charge, or they abstained. Don't they look suspect ?
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CoE's debate on UK controversy stirs PanEuropean check of anti-terror suspects' imprisonment

Former Leftists of the Sixties would boil in hot water if they heard PACE's debate on the controversial 42 days detention without charge, currently drafted by the British Government :

A "Socialist" Government, a Socialist PACE Rapporteur and a Socialist Chair of PACE's Legal Committee, opposed a .. "Conservative" amendment (supported by .. Liberals, Democrats, etc), to freeze the measure, in order to protect Citizens' Freedom, by "waiting" until CoE's Venice Committee checks its conformity with Human Rights' principles.

"Left"'s support to Conservative-Lib.Dem's criticism, wasn't enough to obtain a majority, nor to make things as they were back in the good old days, when "Left" and "Right" had a clear meaning, as "liberty" and "restrictions"...

Conservatives and most Democrats were joined by the Left in voting for the "freeze", as well as Liberal Paul Rowen, while Socialist MEP Ivan Popescu, an experienced MEP from Ukraine (PACE Member since 1996-2008) abstained. But most Socialists, added to a few Liberals and EPP's Right, voted against.

Fortunately, someone inside PACE had the wise idea to shorten the Debate for less than 1 Hour, and put it on the Agenda only at the end of an exceptionally busy day, towards the end of the Evening, when most MEPs had already gone to taste wins and foods at various Receptions all around Strasbourg's "European" area : As a result, not even 42 MEPs weren't present..

Socialist Lord Tomlinson accused the leaders of the PanEuropean Assembly, in its highest body : the "Bureau", to "lack wisdom" by deciding to hold a Debate on an issue that neither the Socialist Chair of the Legal Committee, nor its Socialist "reluctant Rapporteur", did "not want to do", ...

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Finally, everybody (critics and supporters alike) was happy to agree, in substance, that the controversial measure "may" gravely violate Human Rights, and therefore, PACE asked Legal Experts of Venice Commission to check UK Government''s plans.

But this might take more than .. 42 Days to do, since PACE's Rapporteur asked the Experts to enlarge their study in a PanEuropean comparison of all that is happening on "anti-terrorism" legislation in 47 CoE Member Countries, including Russia, Turkey and Azerbaidjan..

Bad lack : "The existing 28 days’ detention without charge in the UK is, in comparison with other CoE member countries, one of the most extreme : In Turkey, the period is 7,5 days, in France 6 days, in Russia 5 days, and in .. the U.S. and Canada just 2 and 1 days respectively", denounced Democrat MEP Ms WOLDSETH from Norway..

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"Numerous respected human rights organisations, including Liberty and Human Rights Watch, have expressed serious concern" "The proposed legislation ...could easily lead to extensive abuses. ...Detention for 42 days means six weeks in which one is taken away from one’s family, friends, home and livelihood only to be let off without being charged. That will destroy lives and isolate communities", she added.

- "3 years ago, the UK Government sought to increase the period of pre-charge detention from 14 days to 90 days. Not long before that, it had been only 7 days. There was a vigorous debate ...and a ...compromise was reached of 28 days. We have to ask whether there are proper safeguards in place to extend the period to 42 days. I suggest that there are fatal flaws", reminded British Conservative Clappison.

- "What sort of society holds someone in detention for 42 days and does not have to tell the person who is in prison why they are there, or explain the suspicions that arose and led to their detention? What sort of society believes that that is the way to treat its citizens? That is an appalling injustice, ...A 42-day detention period will not make the UK safer. Instead, it will be the first step to giving in to terrorists; it is saying that we are prepared to sacrifice our democratic rights and the principles for which we have stood for centuries", criticized British Liberal Michael Hanckock

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"Comments made ...by Norwegian delegates are unfortunate", replied British Socialist MEP Ms.Curtis-Thomas, accusing them to "besmirch the reputation of our police force, which is one of the Best in the World", as she said, believing that "there are significant safeguards ...to ensure that individuals are not subjected to unlawful detention"

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PACE "has serious doubts whether ...the draft legislation are in conformity with the ...case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. A lack of ..safeguards may lead to arbitrariness, resulting in breaches of ... liberty and ...right to a fair trial". PACE "is particularly concerned that: ..the judge ..may not be in a position to examine whether there exist reasonable grounds for suspecting that the arrested person has committed an offence;"; that "... representation by a lawyer may be inappropriately restricted or delayed;" that "information on the grounds for suspicion of a person ...may be unduly withheld.. ;" that this "may give rise to arrests without the intention to charge;", and; in general, that "prolonged detention without proper information on the grounds for arrest may constitute inhuman treatment", says Klaus De Vries' Report, adopted with 29 votes against zero.

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Records don't say if it took him 42 Days to draft his Report, but, at least, he knew why...

Polls

2009 EU Elections were won by Parties against Technocracy and Turkey's controversial EU bid, while the 1999-2004 Majority Abstention trend decelerated. What should be done in 2009-2014 ?

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