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Resolution 2054 (2015)
Equality and non-discrimination in the access to justice
1. Access to justice is an inherent
aspect of the rule of law and a fundamental requirement of any democratic
society. Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS
No. 5) provides for the right to a fair trial and Article 13 sets
forth the right to an effective remedy. Both of these rights are
encompassed by the broader concept of access to justice, which refers
to the various elements leading to appropriate redress against the
violation of a right, such as information on rights and procedures,
legal aid, legal representation, legal standing or general access
to courts.
2. The Parliamentary Assembly regrets that, despite the essential
role of access to justice for the effective enjoyment of rights
by individuals, it is too often hampered by both practical and legal
obstacles. The lack of legal information, the lack of trust in the
authorities, the impact of the economic crisis on legal aid and
the incomplete legal framework applicable to specific situations
significantly contribute to the persistence of barriers to access
to justice.
3. The Assembly is concerned that these barriers are harder to
overcome for some groups of people who are particularly subject
to discrimination and also less likely to know their rights and
existing remedies. In this regard, the Assembly recalls the need
to achieve equal access to justice for all by removing obstacles preventing
individuals from understanding and exercising their rights and seeking
redress in the event of a violation. The Assembly underlines that
co-operation between civil society, administrative and judicial
entities and law-enforcement bodies is of the utmost importance
to ensure equal access to justice.
4. In the light of these considerations, the Assembly calls on
member States to:
4.1. promote and
improve legal awareness by exploring and implementing specific information mechanisms
and innovative communication strategies;
4.2. ensure that adequate information on rights and procedures
is available in different languages and formats and in plain language,
relying on the support of civil society intermediaries for the dissemination of
targeted information;
4.3. enhance reporting of offences by developing incentive
mechanisms aimed at rebuilding trust in the authorities and reducing
the deterrent effect of incurring costs.
5. The Assembly calls on member States to ensure that all categories
of people have access to effective remedies and, in particular,
to:
5.1. guarantee that legal aid
is made available to every person, accused or victim, and take the necessary
measures to ensure that categories of people subject to discrimination
can receive legal aid;
5.2. sign and/or ratify the European Agreement on the Transmission
of Applications for Legal Aid (ETS No. 92), if they have not yet
done so;
5.3. use new technologies and ensure that categories of people
disadvantaged in this respect have alternative forms of access to
justice institutions;
5.4. remove legal obstacles to legal standing, notably by allowing
courts to accept the submission of third-party interventions and
equality bodies to represent individuals in legal proceedings in
certain cases, and by making legal immigration status irrelevant
to the conduct of judicial proceedings;
5.5. sign and/or ratify the European Charter for Regional or
Minority Languages (ETS No. 148) with a view to guaranteeing, throughout
the duration of legal proceedings, the full exercise of linguistic
rights of people using a regional or minority language before the
criminal, civil and administrative courts, in accordance with Article
9 of the charter;
5.6. sign and/or ratify the European Social Charter (revised)
(ETS No. 163) and the Additional Protocol to the European Social
Charter Providing for a System of Collective Complaints (ETS No.
158), if they have not yet done so;
5.7. promote and develop the use of quasi-judicial mechanisms
and alternative dispute resolution.
6. The Assembly calls on member States to step up their efforts
to remove legal, social, economic and cultural barriers to women’s
access to justice and, for this purpose, to:
6.1. sign and/or ratify the Council of Europe Convention on
Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence
(CETS No. 210), if they have not yet done so;
6.2. carry out an in-depth analysis of the impact of gender
on access to justice, in particular by collecting gender-disaggregated
data, and adopt gender-sensitive policies taking account of the
specific barriers to access to justice encountered by women.
7. With regard to categories of people particularly subject to
discrimination and in order to ensure that all individuals enjoy
full access to justice on an equal basis, the Assembly calls on
member States to:
7.1. carry out
national studies to evaluate the scale of the obstacles faced by
these categories of people and implement tailored measures to tackle
them;
7.2. provide specific training to the police and to legal professionals,
including lawyers and judges, on discrimination issues;
7.3. step up efforts to combat discrimination faced by these
categories of people in exercising their rights and, to this end:
7.3.1. enact or amend existing legislation
to incorporate provisions on multiple discrimination in the existing
legal framework against discrimination;
7.3.2. set up and support the work of national equality bodies;
7.3.3. remove obstacles to access to justice for people with
intellectual disabilities, in accordance with the case law of the
European Court of Human Rights.