Closing down of the Danish Centre for Human Rights

Doc. 9471

27 May 2002

Closing down of the Danish Centre for Human Rights

Written Question No. 408

Reply from the Committee of Ministers

adopted at the 796^th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies (22 May 2002)

I. Written Question No. 408 by Mr Jurgens (Doc. 9368)

Considering that the Council of Europe promotes the setting up of independent national human rights institutions in the member states, notably through Committee of Ministers Recommendation No. R (97) 14, through its assistance activities and through its institutional co-operation and regular Round tables with such national institutions on the basis of Committee of Ministers Resolution (97) 11;

Recalling that the texts adopted by the Rome Ministerial Conference on Human Rights in 2000 stressed the need to ensure the implementation of the ECHR at the national level, inter alia through systematic screening of draft legislation, through public information, and through human rights training in particular for the legal professions and for the police, and highlighted the important contribution made by national human rights institutions to the promotion and protection of human rights in the member States;

Noting that the Danish Centre for Human Rights has, since 1987, carried out important work at the national level in precisely those areas that were identified in Rome as essential for ensuring the implementation of the ECHR and other European human rights standards in member States and that this Centre stands out as an important and successful model of a national human rights institution for member States that do not yet have such an institution;

Observing, moreover, that the Danish Centre is an important partner of the Council of Europe, since it chairs the European Coordinating Group of national institutions and as such cooperates in the organisation of the Council of Europe Round Tables and represents one of the only 4 organisations to have observer status with the Steering Committee for Human Rights;

Seriously concerned that the Danish government has recently announced its intention to close down the Danish Centre for Human Rights in the coming months and put an end to work by an independent institution to promote respect for human rights within Denmark, by transferring part of its activities to a new foreign policy institute and another part to a new human rights unit in the Foreign Ministry;

Mr Jurgens,

To ask the Committee of Ministers,

Whether it is also concerned about this announced step, whether it is ready to seek urgent information from the Danish government about the reasons for it and to convey to it the clear message that it is at all events essential that an official but independent and substantial function of promotion and protection of human rights within Denmark be preserved so as to avoid that that member state acts in a way totally contrary to the official position of the Council of Europe, in particular by ceasing to implement a Committee of Ministers’ recommendation, and to seek firm assurances from the Danish authorities to this effect.

II. Reply from the Committee of Ministers

On the basis of information which it has received from the Danish authorities, the Committee of Ministers wishes to inform the Honourable Parliamentarian of the following.

A Bill on the Establishment of a Danish Centre for International Studies and Human Rights (DCISHR) was recently introduced in the Danish Parliament. The Bill does not provide for the closing down of the Danish Centre for Human Rights, but for its inclusion in this new Centre as an independent unit, under the name Institute for Human Rights, alongside a new Institute for International Studies.

The Bill provides that the DCISHR shall be an independent institution. As concerns specifically the Institute for Human Rights, provision is made for a Board of persons appointed by various bodies other than the government. The persons will be appointed in their personal capacity. It also contains various other provisions designed to preserve the independence of the Institute and to secure continuity and identity with the present Danish Centre for Human Rights.

The Committee of Ministers also stresses that the competences of the new Institute for Human Rights, as specified in the Bill, include questions related to the promotion and protection of human rights within Denmark, such as advising the Parliament and the government about Denmark’s obligations in the human rights field and contributing to the realisation of human rights nationally. No reduction of the scope of the activities in the human rights field, compared to the current mandate of the Danish Centre for Human Rights, is foreseen.

On this basis, the Committee of Ministers is confident that an independent and substantial function of promotion and protection of human rights will be preserved in Denmark, in line with Recommendation No. R (97) 14 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the establishment of independent national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights and the so-called “Paris Principles” referred to in that Recommendation. Similarly, it has no reason to doubt that sufficient resources will be made available to the future Institute and that cooperation between the Council of Europe and the Danish Centre for Human Rights will continue, albeit with the future Institute for Human Rights as an independent national institution.