Parliamentary Assembly Assemblée parlementaire

Doc. 10859 rev.
30 March 2006

Council of Europe annual report on the state of human rights in Europe

Motion for a resolution
presented by Mr de Puig and others

1.       In pursuit of its Statutory mission, the Council of Europe has developed, over more than five decades, an unparalleled expertise in the protection and promotion of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. This includes not only setting pan-European standards on civil and political rights, social rights, minority rights, treatment of persons deprived of their liberty and the fight against racism, discrimination and intolerance, but also monitoring respect for these standards by its 46 member States.

2.       Through a process of specialisation, the Council of Europe’s visibility with respect to human rights is now divided between a variety of separate bodies, including the European Court of Human Rights, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, the European Social Charter Committee, the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the protection of the Rights of Minorities, the Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Commission on Racism and Intolerance, along with the Assembly itself, in particular its Monitoring Committee.

3.       Furthermore, these mechanisms employ diverse working methods: some accept individual complaints, whilst others are based on country reports; some pursue a country-by-country approach, others thematic; many use confidential procedures; some report only to the Committee of Ministers, others also to the Assembly.

4.       Despite the fact that, like the rights they protect, the work of these mechanisms is intrinsically interrelated and interdependent, their development has not been accompanied by creation of a central source producing a comparative, comprehensive and regularly updated picture of respect for human rights across the member states.

5.       The Assembly considers that a single, comprehensive document would enhance the visibility of the Council of Europe and thereby its political impact, thus reinforcing its effectiveness in promoting and protecting its core values. It therefore resolves to analyse the modalities for preparing an annual report on the situation of human rights in Council of Europe member and observer states, based on contributions from all sectors of the Organisation. Such a report would be the subject of an annual debate in the Assembly.

Signed ¹:

de PUIG, Lluís Maria, Spain, SOC
Á RMANNSSON, Birgir, Iceland, EDG/GDE
ATEŞ, Abdülkadir, Turkey, SOC
AZZOLINI, Claudio, Italy, EPP/CD
BĒRZINŠ, Andris, Latvia, ALDE
CHRISTODOULIDES, Doros, Cyprus, UEL
CLIVETI, Minodora, Romania, SOC
DEES, Dirk, Netherlands, ALDE
ELO, Mikko, Finland, SOC
GARDETTO, Jean-Charles, Monaco, EPP/CD
GROSS, Andreas, Switzerland, SOC
HÖRSTER, Joachim, Germany, EPP/CD
MARGELOV, Mikhail, Russian Federation, EDG
PAPADIMITRIOU, Elsa, Greece, EPP/CD
SCHREINER, Bernard, France, EPP/CD
SEVERIN, Adrian, Romania, SOC
Van den BRANDE, Luc, Belgium, EPP/CD

¹     SOC: Socialist Group
       EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party
       ALDE: Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
       EDG: European Democratic Group
       UEL: Group of the Unified European Left
       NR: not registered in a group