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Resolution 2203 (2018)
The progress of the Assembly's monitoring procedure (January-December 2017) and the periodic review of the honouring of obligations by Estonia, Greece, Hungary and Ireland
1. The Parliamentary Assembly acknowledges
the work carried out by the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations
and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring
Committee) in fulfilling its mandate as defined in Resolution 1115 (1997) on
the setting up of an Assembly committee on the honouring of obligations
and commitments by member states of the Council of Europe (monitoring
committee) (as modified by Resolution
1431 (2005), Resolution
1515 (2006), Resolution
1698 (2009), Resolution
1710 (2010), Resolution
1936 (2013) and Resolution
2018 (2014)). It commends the committee on its work in
accompanying the 10 countries under a monitoring procedure sensu stricto (Albania, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova,
the Russian Federation, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine), and the three
countries engaged in a post-monitoring dialogue (Bulgaria, Montenegro
and “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”) in their efforts
to fully comply with the obligations and commitments they entered
into upon accession to the Council of Europe, as well as the monitoring
of the membership obligations of all other member States through
its periodic review process.
2. The Assembly deplores that in 2017 the co-rapporteurs for
the monitoring procedure were once again unable to visit the Russian
Federation due to the boycott by the Russian delegation of the work
of the Assembly. It recalls in this context that co-operation with
the monitoring procedure is an explicit accession commitment of
the country.
3. The Assembly recalls that, in the light of the ongoing developments
in Turkey, and the concerns expressed in that regard, it decided
to re-open the monitoring procedure sensu
stricto in respect of Turkey so as to strengthen its
co-operation with the Turkish authorities and all stakeholders in
the country.
4. The Assembly commends the Sub-Committee on Conflicts between
Council of Europe Member States for the work it has undertaken.
5. The Assembly welcomes the positive developments and the progress
made during the reporting period in a number of countries under
a monitoring procedure or engaged in a post-monitoring dialogue.
In particular in:
5.1. Albania:
the holding of parliamentary elections in line with European standards
following the agreement between the main political forces; as well
as the continuing efforts to reform the justice system and to ensure
the integrity of all persons appointed or elected to public functions;
5.2. Armenia: the improved political climate and far-reaching
reforms, including in the judiciary, to implement the new constitution;
5.3. Azerbaijan: the recent release of some “political prisoners”
or “prisoners of conscience”; and the ongoing dialogue with the
country’s authorities in the framework of the Assembly’s monitoring procedure;
5.4. Georgia: the close co-operation with the European Commission
for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) during the drafting
of the constitutional amendments, which are an overall improvement
of the country’s constitutional order;
5.5. Serbia: the commitment of the new government to addressing
the Assembly’s concerns with regard to the reform of the judiciary
and the media environment;
5.6. Ukraine: the ambitious reform programme put in place after
the “Revolution of dignity” despite the challenging environment
as a result of the Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine and the
illegal annexation of Crimea;
5.7. Bulgaria: the amendments introduced to the electoral framework
which resulted in an improved electoral climate for the 2017 parliamentary
elections, and the many positive changes to the country’s judicial
system introduced by the amendments to the Judicial System Act;
5.8. Montenegro: the efforts to reform the judiciary and the
justice system in line with recommendations of, inter alia, the Assembly;
5.9. “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”: the end of
the political crisis that has dominated the political agenda of
the country since April 2014;
5.10. Turkey: the establishment of the Inquiry Commission on
State of Emergency Measures, which the Assembly expects to provide
effective remedies for dismissed civil servants, as well as for associations
and media outlets that were closed on the basis of the emergency
decrees.
6. At the same time, the Assembly expresses its concern about
developments and remaining shortcomings in a number of countries
under a monitoring procedure or engaged in a post-monitoring dialogue.
These shortcomings undermine the democratic consolidation in those
countries and are at odds with their obligations and accession commitments:
6.1. Albania: the continuing polarisation
between the main political parties as well as the parliamentary
boycott by the main opposition party, which have affected the reform
programme and have resulted in considerable delays in the implementation
of important reforms, including with regard to the judiciary;
6.2. Armenia: allegations of widespread vote buying and reports
of abuse of administrative resources during the 2017 parliamentary
elections; recurrent reports of disproportionate and excessive use
of force by the police, especially in the context of protests and
demonstrations, accompanied by a sense of impunity for such actions;
6.3. Azerbaijan: the lack of independence and impartiality
of, and interference by the executive in, the justice system; the
repressive actions against independent media; the lack of an independent,
impartial and effective system to investigate allegations of ill-treatment
by law-enforcement officials;
6.4. Bosnia and Herzegovina: the failure of the authorities
of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its parliamentary delegation to provide
comments on the preliminary draft report on the honouring of obligations
and commitments by Bosnia and Herzegovina, in violation of the country’s
obligation to co-operate with the Monitoring Committee; the continued
failure since 2009 to implement the judgments of the European Court
of Human Rights related to ethnic- and residency-based limitations
to the right to stand for elected offices; the continued failure
to address the issue of segregation along ethnic and religious lines
in education;
6.5. Georgia: the postponement of the introduction of a fully
proportional election system in the country until after the next
parliamentary elections, which undermined the possibility for a
broad political consensus on the constitutional amendments;
6.6. Russian Federation: the ongoing military aggression against
Ukraine in Donbas and the illegal occupation of the Autonomous Republic
of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol; the decision by the Constitutional
Court of the Russian Federation not to allow compensation of Yukos
shareholders as ordered by the European Court of Human Rights, in
violation of the obligation incumbent on all Council of Europe members
States to unconditionally honour the judgments of the Court; the
designation of the Jehovah’s Witnesses as an extremist organisation
by the Russian Supreme Court, underscoring the use of legislation
to fight extremism to curtail freedom of expression and assembly,
as well as freedom of worship, in the Russian Federation; the reports
of abductions, unlawful detentions, torture and killings of men
in the Chechen Republic based on their sexual orientation and gender
identity; and the continuing human rights violations in occupied
Crimea;
6.7. Serbia: the insufficient implementation of existing media
legislation, undermining balanced media coverage, especially in
the framework of elections;
6.8. Turkey: the undermining of the separation of powers and
independence of the judiciary, as well as a diminishing system of
checks and balances, as a result of the adoption of constitutional amendments
that are not in line with European standards and under conditions
that raise questions about the democratic nature of the process;
the lifting of immunity and pretrial detention of members of parliament;
the disproportionate effect of the emergency decree laws – including
the massive dismissals of civil servants, judges, prosecutors and
academics and the closing down of media and non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) – as well as limited access to judicial remedies; the repeated violations
of freedom of expression and freedom of the media and the situation
of local administrations in south-east Turkey, leading to a serious
deterioration of the functioning of democratic institutions;
6.9. Ukraine: the hardening of political discourse following
the Euromaidan events and the Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine,
and the polarisation of the media environment, leading to unacceptable attacks
on journalists and media outlets; the insufficient balance between
the official language and the languages of national minorities in
the new law on education in Ukraine, leading to a reduction in rights in
comparison to previous legislation; the pervasive corruption that
undermines public trust in the political and judicial system as
a whole; the lack of balanced composition of the Central Election
Committee according to the recommendations of the Council of Europe,
by proportional representation of all parliamentary political factions;
6.10. Bulgaria: the weak structure for accountability of the
prosecutor general and the frequent use of racist and xenophobic
language during the election campaign, as well as allegations of
vote buying and organised voting, especially among vulnerable groups
in Bulgarian society, during the 2017 parliamentary elections;
6.11. Montenegro: the continuing boycott of the parliament by
the opposition, which is hindering reforms; the concerns about the
state of freedom of expression and freedom of the media in the country;
6.12. “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”: the storming
of the parliament by protesters and the continuing ethnic divisions
in the country.
7. Consequently, the Assembly urges all the countries that are
under a monitoring procedure or engaged in a post-monitoring dialogue
to step up their efforts to fully honour all membership obligations
and accession commitments to the Council of Europe. In particular,
it calls on:
7.1. the Albanian authorities
and all political forces in the country to overcome the political
polarisation and to ensure the full implementation of the vetting
process of judges and the implementation of the decriminalisation
law;
7.2. all Armenian political forces to continue improving the
political environment in the country through dialogue and co-operation;
the Armenian authorities to fully investigate all reports of disproportional
and excessive use of force by the police and to establish a genuinely
independent police complaints mechanism as recommended, inter alia, by the Assembly; and
to adopt legislation to effectively combat vote buying and the abuse
of administrative resources during elections;
7.3. the Azerbaijani authorities to liberate the remaining
“political prisoners” or “prisoners of conscience” and to amend
the legal framework governing NGOs with a view to bringing it into
line with European standards and to promptly ensure the full implementation
of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, including
with regard to Ilgar Mammadov, taking note of the decision of the Committee
of Ministers to refer to the Court, in accordance with Article 46.4
of the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5, “the Convention”),
the question whether the Republic of Azerbaijan has failed to fulfil
its obligation under Article 46.1;
7.4. the Georgian authorities to consider implementing the
change of electoral system before the next parliamentary elections
and to fully implement the Venice Commission recommendations contained
in the opinion on the constitutional amendments;
7.5. the Moldovan authorities to fully implement the recommendations
of the Venice Commission contained in their upcoming opinion on
the legal framework governing the funding of political parties and campaigns,
as well as the recent amendments to the electoral legislation in
the Republic of Moldova;
7.6. the authorities of the Russian Federation to implement
all the Assembly's resolutions related to the military aggression
against Ukraine; to halt the use of legislation to fight extremism
to curtail freedom of expression and assembly in the Russian Federation;
to fully recognise the supremacy of judgments of the European Court
of Human Rights and to unconditionally execute the judgments of
the Court; to fully investigate unlawful detentions, torture and
killings of men in the Chechen Republic based on their sexual orientation
and gender identity, to hold any perpetrators of such heinous acts
accountable and to take effective measures to protect the life,
liberty and security of gay and bisexual people throughout the Russian
Federation;
7.7. the Serbian authorities to fully implement the remaining
recommendations of the Assembly with regard to the media environment;
to revise the constitutional provisions pertaining to the judiciary
and to implement the necessary reforms to depoliticise judicial
institutions, strengthen the rule of law and increase trust in State
institutions;
7.8. the Turkish authorities to fully address concerns and
implement recommendations contained in the Venice Commission opinions
on the emergency decree laws; to end the pressure on journalists, human
rights defenders and opposition politicians;
7.9. the Ukrainian authorities to fully implement the recommendations
of the Venice Commission in its opinion on the new Law on Education;
to increase the pace of the reforms to fight the pervasive corruption
in the country and to ensure that these reforms lead to tangible
and concrete results;
7.10. the Bulgarian authorities to implement the recommendations
of the Venice Commission in its opinions on the Judicial System
Act, as well as on the Electoral Code and to strengthen the accountability
of the prosecutor general;
7.11. the Montenegrin authorities to fully implement the legislation
aimed at guaranteeing the genuine independence and professionalism
of the judiciary and to provide the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption
with the necessary means to carry out its mandate efficiently; to
strengthen the Special Prosecutor’s Office and its special police
unit in order to allow them to deal with the high number of cases before
them; the opposition to end its boycott of the parliament and to
engage in the reform process, including in relation to the electoral
framework ahead of the 2018 presidential elections;
7.12. the authorities of “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”
and all political forces to address the ongoing polarisation and
ethnic tensions in the country, to depoliticise the State institutions
and regulatory bodies and to ensure an efficient, impartial and
independent judiciary.
8. With regard to the preparation of the report on the functioning
of democratic institutions in Poland, the Assembly takes note of
the visit of the co-rapporteurs to Warsaw. In this context, the
Assembly calls on the Polish authorities to ensure that the ongoing
reforms, and in particular that of the justice system, are fully
in line with European standards. To this end, the Assembly calls
on the Polish authorities to continue requesting Venice Commission
opinions on such reforms and to address the recommendations and
concerns contained therein.
9. The Assembly reaffirms the importance of the parliamentary
monitoring procedure, and the work of the Monitoring Committee in
the democratisation and institution-building processes in all Council
of Europe member States. In that respect, it especially welcomes
the periodic reviews on the honouring of the membership obligations
to the Council of Europe by countries that are not subject to a
monitoring procedure sensu stricto or
engaged in a post-monitoring dialogue with the Assembly.
10. The Assembly takes note of the periodic review reports on
the honouring of their membership obligations to the Council of
Europe in respect of Estonia, Greece, Hungary and Ireland, which
are presented as part of the report on the progress of the Assembly’s
monitoring procedure (January-December 2017). It endorses the findings
and conclusions in these periodic review reports and encourages
the respective authorities to implement its recommendations. In
particular, the Assembly:
10.1. with
respect to Estonia:
10.1.1. commends Estonia’s extraordinary
e-governance policy and the considerable achievements regarding
transparency and accessibility of government and its cyberdefence expertise;
10.1.2. welcomes Estonia’s adherence to the principles of the
rule of law and congratulates the country on its score in the Corruption
Perception Index, which reflects a low perception of corruption
by the population. To further strengthen this public perception,
the Assembly encourages the authorities to promptly implement the
outstanding recommendations of the Group of States against Corruption
(GRECO);
10.1.3. while taking note of Estonia’s specific historical context,
and while welcoming the significant steps taken by the Estonian
authorities concerning the situation of stateless persons/“persons
with undetermined citizenship”, the Assembly recommends further
steps to reduce their number by increasing access to citizenship
for long-term residents;
10.1.4. encourages the authorities to continue promoting the use
of minority languages and calls on Estonia to sign and ratify the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ETS No. 148);
10.1.5. while commending the efforts made by the authorities to
integrate the Russian minority, recommends that further measures
be taken to reduce unemployment and social exclusion among ethnic
minorities in the country;
10.1.6. calls on the Estonian Parliament to ratify Protocol No.
12 to the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 177) and
encourages the authorities to implement the outstanding recommendations
of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) regarding
racist speech and discrimination against Roma;
10.2. with respect to Greece:
10.2.1. takes note of the
adverse impact of the recession and austerity policies on social
rights, especially those of the most disadvantaged groups of the
population;
10.2.2. warmly welcomes in this context the ratification of the
European Social Charter (revised) (ETS No. 163) in 2016 and encourages
the authorities to make a declaration enabling national NGOs to
submit collective complaints;
10.2.3. stresses that corruption represents one of the root causes
that contributed to the economic and sovereign debt crisis in the
country. The Assembly therefore commends the Greek authorities for
the measures they have taken to ensure transparency of party funding
and to fight corruption and calls on them to fully implement the
recommendations of GRECO;
10.2.4. underlines that Greece has faced a major migration crisis
in recent years, for which it has had to assume a large share of
the financial burden, for which it should be lauded. It calls, however,
on the Greek authorities to end the practice of detention of immigrant
children and to intensify efforts to improve living conditions and
the integration of refugees and migrants in line with Assembly Resolution 2174 (2017) on
the human rights implications of the European response to transit
migration across the Mediterranean and with the recommendations
issued by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights and
the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT);
10.2.5. notes with regret that the combination of the economic
crisis and the migration crisis has provided fertile ground for
extremist ideas to flourish in Greece. The Assembly therefore urges the
Greek authorities to take resolute action to combat racism and intolerance,
ensure the effective implementation of anti-hate-crime legislation
and implement the recommendations of ECRI and the Commissioner for
Human Rights. It calls on the Greek Parliament to ratify Protocol No.
12 to the European Convention on Human Rights without further delay;
10.2.6. with respect to the rights of minorities, reiterates its
call on Greece to ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority
Languages and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National
Minorities (ETS No. 157) and fully implement the judgments of the
European Court of Human Rights to enhance the rights of minorities;
10.2.7. calls on the Greek authorities to enhance the transparency
and accountability of the judicial system as requested by GRECO;
10.2.8. remains concerned by the persistent problem of ill-treatment
by police as highlighted by the CPT and the Commissioner for Human
Rights and urges the authorities to take determined action and to
reinforce preventive measures to tackle this systemic problem, including
the establishment of an effective and fully independent police complaints
body;
10.2.9. encourages the authorities to further enhance the independence
of the media and urges them to continue to refrain from undue political
interference in the media environment;
10.2.10. calls on the Greek Parliament to ratify the Council of
Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women
and Domestic Violence (CETS No. 210) signed in 2011, in order to
combat violence against women, which remains a serious and widespread
problem in Greek society;
10.2.11. applauds the introduction into force of Law 4511/2018,
which abolishes the obligatory application of sharia law in all
civil and inheritance matters of the Muslim minority of Thrace and stipulates
that Greek civil law shall apply and that Greek civil courts shall
have jurisdiction, unless all parties concerned explicitly agree
otherwise;
10.3. with respect to Hungary:
10.3.1. while welcoming
the repeated expressions by the Hungarian authorities of unquestionable
commitment to Europe and its community of values, expresses its
concern about reforms that have raised questions with regard to
attempts to establish political control of most key institutions
while in parallel weakening the system of checks and balances;
10.3.2. reiterates its concern about the recent developments showing
an increasing stigmatisation of NGOs, in particular following the
recently adopted law on the transparency of organisations receiving
foreign funding, which causes disproportionate and unnecessary interference
with freedom of expression and association, and calls for amendments
to the law in order to bring it into line with European standards;
10.3.3. urges the Hungarian authorities to reverse the country’s
decline in ratings regarding media freedom and to cease the strong
political intervention in the Hungarian media market. In this context,
the Assembly calls on the Hungarian authorities to decriminalise
defamation and to take appropriate measures to increase transparency
and accountability regarding the right to access to information;
10.3.4. with regard to the judiciary, takes note of the positive
steps taken to enhance the role of the national judicial council
as a supervisory body; encourages the authorities to continue these reforms,
including by adopting measures to minimise the risk of discretionary
decisions by the president of the national judicial office and to
increase the independence of the prosecution service;
10.3.5. calls on the authorities to address the issue of prison
overcrowding in line with judgments of the European Court of Human
Rights and CPT recommendations, and, in this context, urges the
authorities to step up their efforts to promote alternative non-custodial measures
and to minimise recourse to pretrial detention;
10.3.6. welcomes the authorities’ efforts regarding the minority
language policy and the improvement of non-discrimination legislation;
10.3.7. while welcoming the progress in legislation and practice
to combat hate crime and hate speech, expresses its concern about
hate speech and xenophobic rhetoric in political discourse, which
is not sufficiently condemned in public. The Assembly urges the
authorities to address this issue, including by implementing the
relevant recommendations of the Commissioner for Human Rights, ECRI
and the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection
of National Minorities;
10.3.8. calls on the Hungarian Parliament to ratify the Additional
Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime concerning the criminalisation
of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer
systems (ETS No. 189);
10.3.9. reiterates its concerns about the amendments to the Act
on National Tertiary Education which could force the Central European
University to close down or move out of Hungary, and calls for the
review of the legislation in compliance with Venice Commission recommendations;
10.3.10. while acknowledging the unprecedented challenge for the
country deriving from migration, expresses its concern regarding
the non-compliance of asylum legislation and practice with European
and international standards. The Assembly urges the authorities
to establish a fully human rights-compliant asylum system and to
ensure that any allegation of excessive use of force by border guards
is promptly investigated in an independent and impartial manner;
10.4. with respect to Ireland:
10.4.1. applauds Ireland
for the innovative and participatory process started in 2012 to
revise the constitution by involving the parliament, civil society
and Irish citizens, and notes that this has resulted in the organisation
of several referendums on constitutional amendments;
10.4.2. welcomes, in this respect, the improvement of the legal
framework and rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) people, including same-sex marriages, legal recognition of
transgender people and the expected extension of adoption rights
to same-sex as well as cohabiting couples;
10.4.3. welcomes the progress made over the past decade in acknowledging
responsibility for institutional abuses perpetrated against children
and women, notably in the “Magdalene laundries” and the “mother
and baby homes”. The Assembly encourages the Irish authorities to continue
to confront and investigate past human rights abuses and to ensure
that redress mechanisms are accessible to all victims, in line with
the recommendations issued by the Commissioner for Human Rights
and the United Nations Committee against Torture;
10.4.4. calls on the Irish authorities to further implement the O’Keeffe v. Ireland judgment of
the European Court of Human Rights, in which the Court found that
Ireland had failed to fulfil its obligation under Article 3 of the
Convention to protect children from abuse, and to ratify the Council
of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual
Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (CETS No. 201), which Ireland signed
in 2007;
10.4.5. in the field of gender equality, welcomes the positive
efforts undertaken to promote gender mainstreaming and greater participation
of women in politics. In this context, the Assembly encourages the
Irish authorities to take a firm stance to promote, de jure and de
facto, gender equality and expects the constitutional
referendums scheduled in 2018 to result in:
10.4.5.1. the removal
or revision of Article 41.2.1 regarding a woman’s life within the home,
which engraves in the Constitution gender stereotypes that have
no place in a modern democratic society;
10.4.5.2. the revision of the 8th constitutional amendment, so as
to make termination of pregnancy with gestational limits lawful
in Ireland, enhance women’s rights to reproductive health and facilitate
access to legal and safe abortion, in line with Assembly Resolution 1607 (2008) on
access to safe and legal abortion in Europe;
10.4.6. calls on Ireland to ratify the Council of Europe Convention
on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic
Violence and to promptly align its legislation;
10.4.7. encourages the Irish authorities to ensure an inclusive
education of all pupils, irrespective of their religion or belief,
notably by adopting the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill so
as to ensure fairer and more transparent enrolment policies for
all primary and secondary schools;
10.4.8. commends Ireland’s efforts to fight corruption and encourages
the Irish authorities to implement GRECO’s recommendations, and
adopt and enact the 2015 Public Sector Standards Bill and the Criminal
Justice (Corruption Offences) Bill which will strengthen the anti-corruption legal
framework;
10.4.9. also expects the swift adoption of the Judicial Council
Bill to ensure, inter alia,
the setting up of an independent statutory council for the judiciary
and the adoption of a code of conduct for judges;
10.4.10. welcoming the recent recognition of Travellers as an ethnic
group by the Irish Government, encourages the authorities to further
combat discrimination against Roma and Travellers;
10.4.11. calls on the authorities to ratify Protocol No. 12 to
the European Convention on Human Rights, which it signed in 2000.
11. The Assembly welcomes the Monitoring Committee’s continuous
efforts to reflect on ways in which the periodic review process
can be strengthened and reinforced.