SPEECH BY MR MEVLÜT ÇAVUŞOĞLU, PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OF THE COUNCIL

OF EUROPE AT THE CONFERENCE WITH TEACHERS AND STUDENTS OF THE ODESSA NATIONAL ACADEMY OF LAW

(Odessa, Wednesday 22 September 2010)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Academic body and students,

First of all, I would like to thank Mr Serhii Kivalov, President of the Odessa National Academy of Law, Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Verkhovna Rada and member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, for his invitation to this prestigious academic institution.

It is a real pleasure for me to represent the Council of Europe before this audience of students, professors and researchers. I find it very enriching and stimulating to meet younger generations, in particular students. I expect an interesting session of questions and answers at the end of my contribution.

As you know, the Council of Europe was founded in the wake of the Second World War, by political leaders who shared the firm will to prevent similar tragic conflicts from happening again. The headquarters of the Organisation were placed in Strasbourg, historically one of the most disputed European borders, to underline that reconciliation is the "raison d’être” of the Council of Europe. The fundamental values that we support and promote: democracy, human rights and the rule of law, are the aim of our Organisation. They are also a means to an end: namely, prosperity and long-lasting peace on our Continent.

The Council of Europe is a permanent forum for dialogue, the only truly pan-European one. Forty-seven member states - all European countries with the exception of Belarus – are now under the same roof and the same flag within the Council of Europe.

After 1989 and the fall of the Berlin wall, our Organisation played a major role in European affairs, supporting the countries in Central and Eastern Europe that were building or reconstructing their democratic institutions, and accompanying them on their path toward European integration. In the longer term, we note that in many cases accession to our Organisation was an important step on this path and a precondition for the following one, namely accession to the European Union.

The Council of Europe is a standard-setting body which contributed substantially to creating a corpus of common values and principles now shared by virtually all European countries. The foundations of this process were laid 60 years ago, with the signing of the European Convention on Human Rights, enshrining the basic principles which we defend. In this connection, may I remind you that the exact anniversary of the signing of the Convention is 3 November. Therefore, you may still have time to organise a commemorative ceremony at your University.

Since then, the Council has developed a wealth of legal instruments, standards, monitoring mechanisms, good practices and means of international cooperation.

Over 200 Council of Europe Conventions were signed over the last decades, covering specific topics ranging from culture to medical assistance, from visas to the equivalence of university titles.

At the heart of the Council of Europe Human Rights protection system are the European Convention on Human Rights and its added protocols. 15 protocols were signed and the system is permanently evolving.

A good example of this evolution is the principle of non-discrimination, strictly connected with that of equality. The 1949 Convention on Human Rights stipulates at article 14 that “the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in the Convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground”. Ten years ago, a step further was taken by adding Protocol 12 to the Convention. This Protocol foresees a general prohibition of discrimination: the enjoyment of any right set forth by the law (that is, by the national law of each Party to the Convention) must be enforced without discrimination on any ground. In other words, under the Convention on Human Rights, as completed by Protocol 12, equality and non-discrimination are now the backbone of the Council of Europe’s human rights protection system.

Another important protocol that I want to mention is Protocol 6, concerning the abolition of the death penalty, completed by Protocol 13 on the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances.

The Council of Europe strongly opposes death penalty, as the ultimate form of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment: it violates the right to life. The Assembly takes pride in its decisive contribution to making the member states of the Council of Europe a de facto death penalty-free zone, and strongly regrets the fact that one European country – Belarus – still carries out executions. That is the main reason why still has no formal status at the Council of Europe.

The Assembly has also on several occasions taken a strong stand against executions in other parts of the world, and in particular in the Council of Europe observer states which retain the death penalty, namely Japan and the United States of America.

As required under article 6 of the Lisbon Treaty, the European Union will access the European Convention on Human Rights. This is of course a major development both for the Court and the European Union.

The Pan-European system for the protection of fundamental rights will be enhanced by the incorporation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights into its primary law. The EU will be placed on the same footing as its Member States with regard to the system of fundamental rights protection supervised by the European Court of Human Rights.

The European Convention on Human Rights and its additional protocols, together with the other European Conventions, constitute a solid basis for legal harmonisation in all Europe, and the creation of a European common legal space. The Parliamentary Assembly has no direct legislative competence, but largely contributes to achieving progress toward these goals with its specific instruments and mechanisms.

One of the most efficient is the so-called monitoring procedure. The Monitoring Committee of the Assembly is responsible for verifying the fulfillment of the obligations assumed by the member states under the terms of the Council of Europe Statute, the European Convention on Human Rights and all other conventions to which they are parties, as well as the honouring of the commitments entered into by the authorities of member states upon their accession to our Organisation. Currently the Assembly is assisting ten countries under monitoring procedure (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Russian Federation, Serbia and Ukraine) and four countries engaged in the post-monitoring dialogue (Bulgaria, Monaco, the “former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” and Turkey) in the process of consolidating their democratic institutions with a view to ensuring full respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

In this connection, I would also like to underline the role of the European Commission of Democracy through Law, also known as Venice Commission, a partial agreement which is part of the institutional framework of the Council of Europe. The Venice Commission has been providing legal advice and assistance, notably to countries in Central and Eastern Europe, to help them rebuild and reshape they democratic institution. As democracy, respect of human rights and the rule of Law are pre-requisites for accession to the European Union, this support and assistance helped many countries on their way to EU accession.

Time has shown that besides “hard security”, based on national defense and collective defense organisations, “soft security” has an important role to play in building long lasting peace. And soft security is largely based on sharing common standards for human rights, the rule of law and democracy, which the Organisation I have the honour to represent is responsible for promoting.

Besides legal standards, an important part of soft security is improving the general climate in our societies. The Council of Europe has invested time and resources in information and awareness-raising campaigns to fight all forms of discrimination (whether against ethnic, religious or other minorities) and extremism.

To this ends, I will underline the importance of intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, which I consider one of my top political priorities and the most effective tool for fighting discrimination and promoting mutual understanding. Tolerance remains an important European goal which we cannot set aside. I will never tire of repeating that we must eradicate racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and all forms of phobias leading to discrimination and intolerance. Creating new fault lines with the false image of the other and the disrespect towards difference must be fought with urgency and renewed vigor.

As a permanent forum for dialogue, the Parliamentary Assembly has also been very active in developing parliamentary diplomacy. This does not replace “traditional” diplomacy and Parliamentarians do not aim at “stealing the job” of career diplomats, but they can give a remarkable contribution, particularly in the field of conflict prevention and conflict peaceful solution. Over the last two years, the Assembly has been actively engaged in difficult issues.

I was elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly nine months ago. For this first part of my mandate, I have focused my action and my first official visits on some member states presenting delicate political and institutional situations and I consider that the Assembly has done a great deal of work in the last months.

We have taken concrete action in favour of building democracy and human rights in the “Eastern European region”. Among other issues, we have been helping to solve critical constitutional issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Moldova, to encourage the opposition to return to the Parliament in Albania, to improve the human rights situation in the North Caucasus.

We have also pursued our strategy of bringing non-member states closer to the Council of Europe and to our standards, particularly through the adoption of a new special status, called “Partnership for Democracy”, for the Parliaments of neighbouring non-member states. We received official requests for this status from the Parliaments of Morocco and Palestine.

Another major instrument for the Parliamentary Assembly action is observation of elections, which is systematically performed in any state subject to the monitoring procedure or whose parliament has requested or enjoys special guest status. The Assembly cooperates in the field with other organisations, in particular OSCE/ODIHR and focuses on the political objective of its participation, namely full respect of Council of Europe values and standards.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Council of Europe is undergoing a reform, to enhance its practical and political influence. The Organisation will have to “focus on what it can do best, in the areas where we can make a real impact'', as our Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland said. Today the need for reform is stronger than ever and we support the Secretary General’s efforts. We at the Parliamentary Assembly strongly support this reform and have started to discuss how to change our own working methods, procedures and structures to increase the relevance of our work.

The European Court is also undergoing a reform process to ensure its viability and effectiveness in the future. At present, it cannot cope with the increasing number of requests. We call this reform Interlaken process, after the Swiss town where the first steps in this direction were taken, in a Conference organised by the Swiss Chairmanship of our Committee of Ministers. A follow-up conference will be held in April next year in Izmir, in my home country, under the Turkish Chairmanship.

Dear friends, I very much hope that my short intervention will encourage you to study in more depth European Law and European Politics. To finish, I wish to stress one rule which is the most important to me: both Law and Politics must respect fundamental human rights values, in order to benefit all European citizens.

Thank you for your attention.