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Recommendation 1889 (2009)
Improving the quality and consistency of asylum decisions in the Council of Europe member states
1. Referring to its Resolution 1695 (2009) on
improving the quality and consistency of asylum decisions in the
Council of Europe member states, the Parliamentary Assembly draws
attention to significant divergences in the recognition rates of
asylum seekers between Council of Europe member states.
2. The Assembly considers that much greater efforts should be
made to improve the quality and consistency of asylum decisions
in member states in the interest of the member states and the persons concerned.
It therefore invites the Committee of Ministers to:
2.1. produce guidelines to improve
the quality of asylum decisions in Council of Europe member states.
These guidelines should take into account seven particular concerns:
difficulties in accessing the asylum process; insufficient procedural
safeguards in the asylum proceedings; restrictive and divergent interpretation
of eligibility criteria; lack of objective and reliable country
of origin information; poor evidential assessment; political pressure
on the asylum process and lack of training of the relevant authorities
and their personnel. Furthermore, these guidelines should take into
account the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and texts
including the Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining
Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating
to the Status of Refugees of the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as well as standards set out
in the UNHCR Guidelines on International Protection and the UNHCR
Quality Initiative developed, inter alia,
in the United Kingdom;
2.2. produce guidelines for the collection and harmonisation
of asylum data across Council of Europe member states, indicating
clear benchmarks regarding the exchange of data and taking into
account the existing European Parliament and Council Regulation
(EC) No. 862/2007 of 11 July 2007 on community statistics on migration
and international protection (2007 – OJ L 199/23);
2.3. review the asylum curriculum for all member states, taking
into account work already being carried out and best practices of
member states, relevant principles of refugee law, case law of the European
Court of Human Rights and other relevant Council of Europe standards;
2.4. develop training programmes and tools for those involved
in asylum procedures, notably in the specific areas of interview
techniques, working with vulnerable applicants and with interpreters,
finding and using country of origin information, developments in
international human rights and refugee law, and drafting of decisions;
2.5. encourage member states to share available country of
origin information and important case law decisions by, inter alia, setting up a common
database for Council of Europe member states;
2.6. examine in more detail the extent of the problem of lack
of legal representation and lack of legal aid for asylum seekers
in member states as a limitation of the right of access to justice;
2.7. consider establishing a monitoring mechanism to assess
the quality and consistency of asylum decisions across Europe;
2.8. establish a new permanent committee within the Council
of Europe with a mandate to examine asylum issues, replacing the
Ad hoc Committee of Experts on the Legal Aspects of Territorial
Asylum, Refugees and Stateless Persons (CAHAR);
2.9. ensure that the guidelines on accelerated asylum procedures,
as adopted by the Committee of Ministers, are implemented in a way
that is not oriented towards the lowest common denominators among
Council of Europe member states;
2.10. identify and promote best training methods throughout
the Council of Europe member states.
3. The Assembly also invites the Committee of Ministers to take
renewed note of Recommendation 1440 (2000) on
restrictions on asylum in member states of the Council of Europe
and the European Union, and to:
3.1. draw
up a European instrument for the harmonisation of asylum policies,
with a view to improving the standard of protection for refugees
and asylum seekers in Europe;
3.2. instruct the Steering Committee for Human Rights to further
examine the proposal of incorporating the right to asylum into the
European Convention on Human Rights, with a view to ensuring the
same level of protection as provided by the European Union Charter
on Fundamental Rights.