Print
See related documents
Recommendation 2085 (2016)
Strengthening the protection and role of human rights defenders in Council of Europe member States
1. Referring to its Resolution 2095 (2016) on
strengthening the protection and role of human rights defenders
in Council of Europe member States, the Parliamentary Assembly recommends
that the Committee of Ministers:
1.1. enhance
its dialogue with human rights defenders, in particular by holding
regular exchanges of views with them in the framework of the work
of its subordinate bodies;
1.2. co-ordinate its work on this subject with the Council
of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, the Conference of International
Non-governmental Organisations (INGOs) and the Assembly and hold regular
exchanges of information with the Registry of the European Court
of Human Rights on reprisals against lawyers;
1.3. establish a platform, similar to that created for journalists,
for the protection of human rights defenders;
1.4. publicly and regularly, at least once a year, report to
the Assembly on cases of intimidation of human rights defenders
co-operating with Council of Europe bodies, and in particular lawyers representing
applicants before the European Court of Human Rights, and representatives
of civil society co-operating with the Council of Europe monitoring
bodies and the Commissioner for Human Rights;
1.5. reflect on other ways and means of strengthening the protection
of human rights defenders against acts of intimidation and reprisals
coming from State and non-state actors;
1.6. step up its co-operation on the protection of human rights
defenders with other international organisations, in particular
the European Union, the Organization for Security and Co-operation
in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations;
1.7. consider revising the mandate of the Commissioner for
Human Rights, giving him or her powers to deal with individual cases
of persecution of human rights defenders in member States, thereby
turning that mandate into a fully functional regional mechanism
for the protection of human rights defenders in Europe;
1.8. conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the implementation
by member States of its Declaration on Council of Europe action
to improve the protection of human rights defenders and promote
their activities (adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 6 February
2008), while involving human rights NGOs in this process.