ADDRESS BY MR MEVLÜT ÇAVUŞOĞLU,
PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY
OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE
AT THE FINNISH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
(Helsinki, Wednesday 24 November 2010)
THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE AS A HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER:
RELEVENCE AND CAPACITIES IN TODAY’S EUROPE
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a real pleasure for me to take the floor as President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe at this prestigious institution before a distinguished audience of parliamentarians, diplomats, lawyers and all those passionate about human rights and international relations. I am very honored to address you today and I look forward to an interesting session of questions and answers at the end of my speech.
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 Organization 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 not the aim in itself, but a means to ensuring peace and prosperity on our Continent.
The Council of Europe is a political forum for dialogue - the only 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.
Time has shown that besides “hard security” based on national defense and collective defense organizations, “soft security” has an important role to play in building long lasting peace. This soft security is largely based on sharing, defending and promoting our common standards of human rights, the rule of law and democracy.
After 1989 and the fall of the Berlin wall, our Organization played a major role in European affairs, supporting the countries in Central and Eastern Europe in building their democratic institutions and stabilising Europe following the biggest upheaval since 1945. In fact, it is in 1989 when the importance of “soft security” in Europe took over the “hard security” arrangements which were decisive during the Cold War.
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. Since then, the Council has developed a wealth of legal instruments, non-binding standards, monitoring mechanisms, good practices and means of international cooperation. Up to now, more than 200 European treaties in all areas of the Council of Europe’s competence have been concluded, thus creating a unique pan-European legal area.
Besides the work of the Council of Europe’s expert committees, one of the most important institutional tools of this standard setting is the European Commission of Democracy through Law, also known as the Venice Commission, which is a partial agreement of the Council of Europe. The Venice Commission has provided legal advice and assistance to many countries, notably in Central and Eastern Europe, but also outside the European continent (for example in Kirghizstan and South-Africa) to help them rebuild and reshape their democratic institutions and adopt legislation according to the Council of Europe’s standards .
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which I represent, covers a broad spectrum of political ideologies and hosts an immense variety and diversity of languages, cultures, traditions and religions represented on the European continent.
The Assembly is the political tribune of the Organisation and contributes to its goals by adopting resolutions and recommendations to the Committee of Ministers as well as with its specific instruments and mechanisms. One of the most efficient is the so-called monitoring procedure.
In this connection, it is for me a particular pleasure to mention here that the monitoring procedure was introduced following an order adopted by the Assembly in 1993, which was initiated and presented by Mrs Halonen, current President of Finland, and which became known as the “Halonen Order”.
The Monitoring Committee of the Assembly is responsible for verifying the fulfillment of the obligations and commitments accepted by the authorities of member states upon their accession to our organization. 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 are engaged in the post-monitoring dialogue (Bulgaria, Monaco, the “former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” and Turkey).
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 valuable contribution, particularly in the field of conflict prevention and conflict peaceful solution.
When elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly last January, I have sought to focus Assembly’s action on those member states presenting delicate political and institutional situations. Since the beginning of this year, I have visited many of those countries and held talks at highest political level to facilitate dialogue among key political players and contribute to finding solutions. My work in these areas has been complementary to the work of our Committees and rapporteurs dealing with these issues on a permanent basis. The Assembly has done a great deal of work on this front and I would like now to share with you some conclusions and results of our efforts:
In Albania, we have been working hard to encourage the opposition to return to Parliament. We have to intensify our efforts further in the light of the approaching local elections next year. Mr Berisha, Prime Minister of Albania, will address the Assembly during our next part-session in January 2011 and I hope that this visit will bring some progress to solving the political stalemate in the country.
As I have already mentioned, Albania is under the monitoring procedure and I would like to highlight the important work of Mr Jaakko Laakso, member of the Finnish parliamentary delegation, who is one of our rapporteurs on Albania.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite all our efforts and in violation of a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, the authorities failed to amend the State Constitution before the elections held on 3 October. Much more energy will be needed now after the elections in order to implement Assembly recommendations and approve a comprehensive package of constitutional amendments.
Regarding the situation in Kosovo, our focus has been to make sure that irrespective of its status, Kosovo should be a safe place for all those who live there and where the Council of Europe’s democratic standards are respected. While taking into account the legitimate concerns of Serbia and the UN Security Council Resolution 1244, the Assembly has initiated a dialogue with representatives of the political forces elected to the Kosovo Assembly. These representatives will now be invited to meetings of the Assembly Committees whenever issues which concern Kosovo are discussed. I very much hope that President of Serbia, Mr Tadic, will accept my invitation to address the Assembly in January on the occasion of a joint debate on three reports relating to the Western Balkans.
During my official visit to Russia in July, I felt that the current climate in the relations with the Council of Europe is positive and steadily improving. There remain questions on which our opinions differ and there are demands which Russia, as a member of our organisation, has to fulfil. But if we continue to work as partners, with mutual respect and without double standards, I am sure that progress can be achieved even on difficult issues. We now have excellent co-operation even on very sensitive files, such as the situation in the North Caucasus. The Assembly Resolution adopted in June on this issue was fully supported by members of the Russian delegation.
This brings us to a difficult subject, the war between Georgia and Russia. Our Assembly fully supports the territorial integrity of Georgia. The political negotiations between the parties being held in Geneva, I am of the opinion that the Council of Europe must concentrate on humanitarian issues to improve the life of ordinary citizens in the region. We hope to achieve some more progress during a hearing with the participation of the different stakeholders, which will be organised by the Monitoring Committee on 17 January in Paris.
I recently paid an official visit to Ukraine. The country now has started the urgently needed reforms after years of political instability. But to succeed in this task, the new President and governing coalition need to associate different political forces in the country with the reform process and to resist the temptation of excessive concentration of power. Our Congress of local and regional authorities observed the local and regional elections held on 31 October 2010 and concluded that the country’s election system still requires substantial improvements.
The Council of Europe has done every effort to help resolve the present political and constitutional deadlock in Moldova. It is unfortunate that the referendum on the revision of Article 78 of the Constitution concerning the election of the President failed and that the country is facing a new parliamentary election this Sunday. The Assembly will observe this election and we shall pursue our mediating efforts between the different political forces in order to help them find a solution to the current deadlock.
I also visited both Armenia and Azerbaijan. In Armenia, besides the urgent need to resolve the cases of those still in prison after the Presidential election of March 2009, the authorities must reform the election system in order to restore citizens’ confidence in the democratic process. In Azerbaijan, the Assembly observed the parliamentary elections held on 7 November 2010 and concluded that despite a general better election environment, further progress in the democratic development of the country is necessary. The release from prison of the two bloggers last week, after intense international political pressure including from myself, is certainly a step in the right direction.
In the South-Caucasus region, we have been encouraging moves aiming at bringing a solution to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Here again, we do not interfere with the OSCE Minsk Group where the negotiations regarding the settlement of the conflict are going on. We try to encourage trust and confidence-building measures, in particular, among the parliamentary delegations of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Speaking about unsolved conflicts in Europe, I cannot resist recalling the case of the Aland Islands, which can serve as an historical example for the peaceful settlement of the today’s frozen conflicts in Europe. According to the decision of the League of Nations in 1921, Finland retained its sovereignty over the islands but granted this region a large autonomy guaranteeing the population the right to keep Swedish language as well as their culture and local traditions. I think that similar arrangements could certainly be a way forward on the current frozen conflicts as well.
Now about Belarus, which is the only European country whose parliament has no official status with the Assembly. There is one non-negotiable condition for us to start discussion on de-freezing our relation – the death penalty. Following two more executions last spring, the Assembly decided to put on hold its activities involving high-level contacts with Belarus. Currently, our work on Belarus is concentrated in the hands of our excellent rapporteur, Head of the Finnish delegation to PACE, Mrs Hurskainen. We will not observe the presidential elections on 19 December, but we hope that progress in our relations will be possible next year following some positive steps which we expect from the Belarusian authorities.
A word regarding my own country, Turkey. The positive result of the referendum on constitutional changes as well as the high turnout showed how strongly the Turkish people are attached to their democratic rights and freedoms and to a future in Europe. This is a powerful signal for the Turkey’s chairmanship of the Council of Europe, which started two weeks ago. Hopefully further reforms will follow soon, including a new Constitution.
Finally, we have also pursued our strategy of bringing non-member states closer to the Council of Europe and to our standards, particularly through our new special status, called “Partnership for Democracy”, for the Parliaments of neighbouring non-member states. We have received official requests for this status from the Parliaments of Morocco and Palestine and the Parliament of Kazakhstan is currently considering to make a request.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,
The task of the Parliamentary Assembly is not limited to supporting individual member states facing specific challenges. We must also react to challenges that all our societies have to face. During the last couple of months, the issue of the Roma population in Europe has raised serious questions about discrimination. I am proud to say that the Council of Europe was among the first international institutions to condemn the outrages against Roma in Europe.
Several weeks ago, our Assembly held an urgent debate on the recent rise of national security discourse in Europe: the case of Roma. In this debate, the Assembly strongly condemned as racist and xenophobic, and therefore unacceptable in a democracy, the use of language stigmatising Roma or any other minority or migrant group.
On 20 October, I participated in the high-level meeting on Roma convened in Strasbourg at the initiative of the Council of Europe Secretary General, Mr Jagland. The meeting agreed policy guidelines, so-called “Strasbourg declaration”, which all member states have to respect in designing their domestic policies regarding Roma.
But we must also do our part of the job in our capacity of members of national parliaments. In Resolution 1740 on the situation of Roma, adopted last June, the Assembly recommended including Roma representatives in the national delegations to the Assembly. Moreover, we will now conclude an agreement on co-operation with the European Roma and Travellers Forum in order to involve them more closely in Assembly’s activities.
In this connection, I have to mention again your President Mrs Halonen. She was one of the first politicians in Europe to underline that the situation of Roma requires action at the European level and initiated the establishment of the European Roma and Travellers Forum in a speech to PACE in January 2001.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,
The issue of discrimination against Roma is just the top of the iceberg. The recent general rise of extremist, racist and xenophobic rhetoric in many of our member states requires a comprehensive response. Recently, we have seen political support growing to parties inspired by racist ideas in a number of national elections in our member states as well as in the elections to the European Parliament. These extremist populist parties are capitalising on security concerns by simply equating immigration with crime and insecurity. Nowadays, in an attempt to regain the support of the electorate, mainstream political parties are tempted to pick up some of the radical, xenophobic and discriminatory language of extremist parties. This is an extremely worrying trend.
In this context, I want to stress that politicians bear a special responsibility for eliminating from the political discourse the negative stereotyping or stigmatising of any minority or migrant group. On the contrary - they must promote a message of non-discrimination, tolerance and respect for people from different backgrounds.
I would like to congratulate Finland on its efforts to fight discrimination. Finland has ratified Protocol No 12 to the ECHR on anti-discrimination and introduced legal and institutional measures against racial discrimination. Non-discrimination provisions were introduced in your criminal, civil and administrative law and the National Discrimination Tribunal was established. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), a Council of Europe independent body, gave a very positive evaluation of these measures.
Dear friends,
The foundation of our common European home must be built on an open society based on respect for diversity and not on exclusion, not on discrimination, not on fear and not on hatred. Therefore, we must enhance inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue, and the Council of Europe White Paper on inter-cultural dialogue can be an important guidance in this respect .
All world religions are based on tolerance, compassion and respect for human dignity and, therefore, they can bring an important contribution to inter-cultural dialogue and understanding among people of different origins.
That is why the Assembly will hold in April 2011 a debate on religious dimension of inter-cultural dialogue with the participation of representatives of different religions - Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish.
In view of preparing this debate, I have met a number of religious leaders of key confessions in Europe: the Pope, the Chief Mufti of the Russian Federation, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Grand Rabbi of Russia and the CIS Region, the Patriarch of Romania. Some of them, I hope, will accept my invitation to Strasbourg next April.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,
I would like to mention briefly three more issues which our Assembly is currently working on and for which we expect your full support.
As you may know, under the impulse of the Secretary General of the Organisation, Mr Thorbjørn Jagland and with the full support of our Parliamentary Assembly, the Council of Europe has now initiated a major process of reform. We are not changing our main objectives, but we are aiming at becoming more pro-active and enhancing the political relevance, impact and effectiveness of the Organisation.
The European Court of Human Rights is also undergoing a reform process after the entry into force of Protocol 14 to ensure its viability and effectiveness in the future.
In the Parliamentary Assembly, an Ad Hoc Committee for reform has started its work in order to make its first proposals to the Assembly at the beginning of 2011.
Dear colleagues,
One of the most important challenges that lie ahead of us is the accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 6 of the Lisbon Treaty provides a clear legal mandate for rapid accession.
As the powers of the European Union continue to extend, it is essential to ensure direct access for individual citizens to the Strasbourg Court if they consider that their rights are violated by the EU institutions.
Official talks on the accession started on 7 July between the Council of Europe and the European Commission and the Assembly is making its contribution to ensure that this process is smooth and quick.
We also believe that the EU should accede to other relevant key CoE conventions, in particular, those on the Prevention of Terrorism, on the Prevention of Torture, on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, on the Protection of Children against Sexual Abuse as well as to the revised Social Charter.
Dear friends,
I should now add some words about your country, Finland, and the Council of Europe. Finland joined the Council of Europe in May 1989 and it has always been fervent promoter and defender of the Council of Europe and its values. You have very strong democratic traditions and, therefore, you are an example for many other European countries in many areas. I have already mentioned the fight against discrimination, but you are also European leader in the fields of the rights of minorities, Roma rights and the fight against corruption, just to name a few.
I would like to especially highlight your country’s record on women’s rights. In 1906 Finland became the first country in the world to grant full political rights to women, including the right to vote and to stand for election.
The Council of Europe attaches great importance to achieving gender equality. The Committee of Ministers adopted on 12 May 2009 a Declaration called “Making gender equality a reality”. In this declaration all member states of the organisation committed themselves to bridging the gap between equality in fact and in law. Most recently, our Assembly adopted a resolution on increasing women’s representation in politics through the electoral system.
For me, Finland is the country where our recommendations come the closest to the reality. You have the highest number of female government members in the world - more then 50%, 11 of your 20 ministers are women. Also the level of female members of parliament is among the highest in the world. Congratulations, you are an inspiration for the whole Europe.
Dear Friends,
After decencies of harmonious progress, we are now facing very challenging times in Europe. I am sure that the Council of Europe and the Assembly are up to these challenges and can propose appropriate solutions. But the effectiveness of our action will depend on the willingness of our member states. So, we are counting very much on your support in order to fulfil together our common objectives of building a peaceful, strong and democratic Europe.
Thank you for your attention and I would be happy to exchange views and ideas with you.