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Human Rights in Europe: from Crisis to Renewal?

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Human Rights in Europe: from Crisis to Renewal? HUMAN RIGHTS IN EUROPE: FROM CRISIS TO RENEWAL? by Nils Muižnieks Commissioner for Human Rights HUMAN RIGHTS IN EUROPE: FROM CRISIS TO RENEWAL? by Nils Muižnieks Commissioner for Human Rights Council of Europe All requests concerning the reproduction or translation of all or part of the document should be addressed to the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights. [email protected] Cover photo: ©Istvan Csak/Shutterstock.com War refugees on their way to Germany at the Gyekenyes Zakany Railway Station (Hungary). Gyekenyes, 5 October 2015 Photos: Ch.1,3,5,6,8,9,11,12 ©Shutterstock.com Ch.2 ©Massimo Sestini Ch.7 ©Marton Nemenyi Other photos: © Council of Europe © Council of Europe, November 2017 Printed in France Contents FOREWORD 7 1. SOCIAL RIGHTS, AUSTERITY AND PRESERVING EUROPE’S ACQUIS 11 Introduction 11 National Human Rights Structures can help mitigate the effects of austerity measures 13 Preserving Europe’s social model 15 Maintain universal access to health care 17 Youth human rights at risk during the crisis 20 Protect women’s rights during the crisis 22 Respecting the human rights of persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities: an obligation not yet fully understood 25 The new development agenda should fulfil human rights 29 Business enterprises begin to recognise their human rights responsibilities 32 2. MIGRATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS 39 Introduction 39 Syrian refugees: a neglected human rights crisis in Europe 41 Syrian refugees: ‘Reset’ needed in Europe’s approach 43 EU-Turkey deal on refugees disregards human rights (Stop Your Backsliding, Europe) 45 EU agreements with third countries must uphold human rights 47 High time for states to invest in alternatives to migrant detention 48 Migrants in limbo have the right to live in dignity 52 Without papers but not without rights: the basic social rights of irregular migrants 55 Improving protection for victims of forced labour and human trafficking 58 Internally displaced persons in Europe: Another lost generation? 62 3. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND MEDIA FREEDOM 67 Introduction 67 Press freedom in the digital age: new threats, new challenges 69 Continued attacks in Europe: journalists need protection from violence 71 The Alarming Situation of Press Freedom in Europe 72 Public service broadcasting under threat in Europe 77 Observations and reflections on academic freedom 81 4. HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS 85 Introduction 85 Restrictions on defenders of migrants’ rights should stop 86 Belarusian Human Rights Defenders Need Support 88 Human rights defenders’ work is vital for redress to victims of enforced disappearance 90 Remove obstacles to the work of women’s rights defenders 93 The shrinking space for human rights organisations 96 Page 3 5. CHILDREN’S RIGHTS 103 Introduction 103 Governments should act in the best interest of stateless children 105 Child labour in Europe: a persisting challenge 107 Decisions concerning migrant children must always be based on their best interests 109 Protecting children’s rights in the digital world: an ever-growing challenge 111 Child-Friendly Justice: What it means and how it is realized 113 Protecting Children’s Rights: Europe should do more 117 Inclusive education vital for social cohesion in diverse societies 120 No violence against children is acceptable, all violence is preventable 123 6. WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND GENDER EQUALITY 129 Introduction 129 Fighting violence against women must become a top priority 131 Hate speech against women should be specifically tackled 134 Human rights of refugee and migrant women and girls need to be better protected 137 Protect women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights 140 Observations and reflections on attacks on the concept of gender 144 7. HUMAN RIGHTS OF ROMA AND TRAVELLERS 149 Introduction 149 Time to cure amnesia about the history of Roma in Europe 151 Time to debunk myths and prejudices about Roma migrants in Europe 154 States must take resolute measures to end school segregation of Roma 157 Stop chasing Roma. Start including them 159 Travellers – Time to counter deep-rooted hostility 161 8. HUMAN RIGHTS OF LGBTI PEOPLE 167 Introduction 167 Silencing voices against homophobia violates human rights 169 LGBTI children have the right to safety and equality 170 A boy or a girl or a person – intersex people lack recognition in Europe 173 Access to registered same-sex partnerships: it’s a question of equality 176 European societies should recognise the full diversity of gender identities 179 The long march against homophobia and transphobia 182 9. INTOLERANCE 187 Introduction 187 Europe must combat racist extremism and uphold human rights 189 Anti-Muslim prejudice hinders integration 191 Europe still haunted by antisemitism 193 Afrophobia: Europe should confront this legacy of colonialism and the slave trade 195 10. TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS 201 Introduction 201 Missing persons in Europe: the truth is yet to be told 203 Justice and reconciliation long overdue in the Balkans 205 Addressing the needs of the victims of the Srebrenica genocide must be the priority 208 Armenian-Turkish Reconnections and Human Rights 209 Why remembering the Holocaust is a human rights imperative 212 Page 4 Human Rights in Europe: From Crisis to Renewal? 11. COUNTER-TERRORISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS 217 Introduction 217 Time for accountability in CIA torture cases 219 Human rights in Europe should not buckle under mass surveillance 222 Security services should not have carte blanche 225 Human rights at risk when secret surveillance spreads 227 National Human Rights Structures: protecting human rights while countering terrorism 229 12. LAW ENFORCEMENT, THE JUDICIARY AND HUMAN RIGHTS 235 Introduction 235 Police abuse – a serious threat to the rule of law 237 Torture survivors have the right to redress and rehabilitation 239 Leaning on judges: eroding the rule of law in Europe 243 Non-implementation of the Court’s judgments: our shared responsibility 246 Page 5 Foreword This is a collection of pieces my team and I wrote and published in various outlets from the beginning of my mandate as Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe in April 2012 through the end of August 2017. This period covers the lion’s share of my six-year mandate. My time in office has been quite eventful, if not to say tumultuous. It has seen the crisis in and around Ukraine, the migration policy crisis, a wave of terrorist attacks and problematic policy responses, the attempted coup in Turkey and the broad crackdown that followed, and other significant human rights developments at both national and European levels. This collection does not contain detailed analyses of human rights in individual countries – for such analyses, I refer the reader to my country reports. It seeks to address broader human rights issues affecting several or many Council of Europe member states. Most of the entries were published on my website as Human Rights Comments. These are brief, topical pieces addressing a human rights issue that affects several countries. In addition to providing country examples, they often recall applicable international standards, especially the case law of the European Court of Human Rights or the European Social Charter, and seek to provide guidance to states on the way forward. They often generated significant media coverage at national and European level. The compilation is rounded out by several pieces initially published as the concluding observations of my quarterly activity reports or as opinion editorials in various media outlets, along with a few speeches I delivered at conferences. I hope that this compilation will be of more than historical interest. Most of the issues addressed remain topical today and the relevant human rights standards have not evolved so quickly. Much to my surprise, I have only been able to identify very few recent overviews of human rights issues in Europe covering a wide range of topics. Though the media did pick up on the Human Rights Comments, they are not as well known in the human rights community as I thought. To remedy this shortcoming, for some recent country visits, my team prepared and distributed smaller compilations of Human Rights Comments on the issues I focused on during the visits. These smaller compilations received positive feedback and some activists even asked if they could translate and distribute all of the Human Rights Comments into their national language. I decided that it was necessary to provide context for the pieces and outline how my thinking on the issue in question has evolved over time. This has been done in short introductions to each chapter. The chapters are organised thematically, and the pieces within each chapter follow a logical, not necessarily chronological Foreword Page 7 order. The thematic chapters cover many topical human rights issues, but I try not to trespass too often onto the territory of the Council of Europe’s human rights monitoring mechanisms, though I have seen my role as amplifying and reiterating their messages. The monitoring mechanisms cover much ground: torture, social rights, racism, minority rights, regional and minority languages, domestic violence and trafficking in human beings. Nevertheless, a number of important gaps remain. The two biggest gaps, in my view, are children’s rights and media freedom. I have tried to address these two issues regularly in both my country and thematic work. Further, I have found that several of the human rights crises that erupted during my mandate spanned many countries and issue areas. For example, during my country visits, I have witnessed the many ways in which the economic crisis affected human rights, including its impact on social and economic rights, but also its effect on conditions of detention, access to justice, the situation of vulnerable groups and policies and attitudes towards minorities and migrants. When the migration movements and their mismanagement began to top the news, I realised that the monitoring mechanisms could only deal with certain discrete human rights aspects of this crisis within their respective mandates, usually within the context of individual countries.
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