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Council of Europe Agenda for Humanity Report 2017-2018.Pdf

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Council of Europe Agenda for Humanity Report 2017-2018.Pdf COUNCIL OF EUROPE COMMITMENTS 2017-2018: Leave No One Behind 3A – Reduce and address displacement Commitment 1 – The Secretary General commits to prioritising the protection of the rights of refugees and asylum seekers across the Council of Europe’s 47 member states in his diplomatic efforts with political leaders and in the Organisation’s co-operation with the European Union. The Secretary General will send his Special Representative on migration and refugees to areas where national authorities may need support in meeting international human rights standards, in particular in the processing of asylum applications and with regard to living conditions. During the course of the self-reporting period, the Council of Europe Secretary General, Thorbjørn Jagland continued to raise the issue of the protection of the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in his high-level meetings with Heads of State and Governments, and relevant ministers across Europe, with the aim of promoting the protection of the human rights of migrants and refugees as well as their integration into wider society. The Secretary General continued to be in regular contact with his interlocutors representing the European Union with a view to raising more awareness of the existing obligations of member states, including of European Union member states, as set out by the European Convention on Human Rights and other Council of Europe instruments. Co-operation and co-ordination was strengthened with the European Union also under the framework of the Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey, providing programmatic support to Beneficiaries by addressing recommendations of Council of Europe monitoring bodies in the area of anti-discrimination and the protection of the rights of vulnerable groups, among others. According to his mandate, the Secretary General’s Special Representative on migration and refugees, continued to reach out to member states to uphold the human rights principles they have accepted, and to implement Council of Europe’s standards also when dealing with refugees and migrants. In this framework, he has continued his fact-finding missions to countries concerned to collect information on the protection of the fundamental rights of migrants and refugees and to offer advice and assistance to member states. In 2017, the Special Representative carried out fact-finding missions to Serbia and two transit zones in Hungary and Bulgaria, whereas in 2018, he travelled to Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. Reports on the fact-finding missions are published and include concrete proposals and recommendations where to the Council of Europe can assist member states to uphold human rights standards. The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) has been playing an important role in complementing the Council of Europe activities in the field of migration with very tangible financial support. From emergency situation, to special capacity development, but also to the support of long term capacity building, the CEB continued to play an active role in financing local infrastructure, affordable housing, health care, education facilities and job creation. With its loans, it continued to provide opportunities for migrants that are entitled to stay to integrate into the host communities. 1 Commitment 2 - The Secretary General commits to helping member states develop early integration measures for newcomers, including, by setting out before the end of the year, a roadmap for implementation of Article VII of the Lisbon Recognition Convention, relating to the recognition of refugees’ qualifications. The Council of Europe has made continued efforts to support states in the implementation of Article VII of the Lisbon Recognition Convention. On 14 November 2017 the Lisbon Recognition Convention Committee adopted a Recommendation on the Recognition of qualifications held by refugees, displaced person, and persons in a refugee-like situation and its explanatory memorandum. In addition, a pilot phase of the project on the European Qualification Passport for Refugees run by the Greek ministry of Education was completed in 2017, having assessed 92 applications and issued 73 Passports. A more extensive, second phase of this project was launched on 28 March 2018 and will be run in 2019‑2020, with the participation of the national information centres on recognition of Armenia, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. The first two evaluation sessions under the second phase of the project took place in June and July 2018 in Greece and in Italy respectively, including 90 interviews and resulting in 54 passports. Additional sessions took place in October-November 2018 in the Netherlands, Italy and France. A total of 188 passports have been issued since the start of the project, based on 234 interviews. 23 credential evaluators with a wide range of language competences have been trained so far on the EQPR methodology. In addition to the above, the Council of Europe has been active in identifying new areas of support for member states in the framework of helping to develop early integration measures for newcomers: The Council of Europe has taken significant action with regards to helping member states remove language barriers for migrants. A Toolkit on Language Support for Adult Refugees has been developed to support member states in their efforts to respond to the challenges posed by unprecedented migration flows. The toolkit comprises the 57 tools and other resources, and it is designed to assist organisations, and especially volunteers, providing language support for adult migrants and refugees. In addition, a fourth survey on Language Policies and Language Requirements for Migrants in the member states was undertaken by the Education Department in close co-operation with the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) in 2018. Its primary aim is to map the language requirements and knowledge of society (KoS) requirements for migrants in Council of Europe member states prior to entry, for residence and for citizenship with the aim of identifying trends in policies for the linguistic integration of migrants. In the survey, particular attention is dedicated to vulnerable groups, such as illiterate/low-literate migrants, women, unaccompanied minors, asylum seekers and refugees. The survey was launched in September 2018 with a time-limit for contributions on 10 November 2018. Its results will be reported at an intergovernmental conference. The Council of Europe continued to support its member states in putting in place smart policies to successfully integrate refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. The implementation of the Action Plan on Building Inclusive Societies (2016-2019) adopted in March 2016 continues. The Action Plan focuses on three main areas: education, combating intolerance and discrimination and support for effective integration policies. 2 In the framework of the Intercultural cities programme, the Council of Europe continued to support cities in reviewing their policies through an intercultural lens and developing comprehensive intercultural strategies to help them manage diversity positively and realise the diversity advantage. The programme also continues to propose a set of analytical and practical tools to help local stakeholders through the various stages of the process, as well as to aim at supporting local communities in addressing also the challenges of integration. In July 2017, the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) launched a migrant integration via sport platform, with the objective of fostering co-operation and sharing good practices. As of 2 January 2019, there are currently 49 projects, run in 21 countries in around 35 sport disciplines and therapeutic techniques, on the platform. Commitment 3 - The Council of Europe commits to collectively work towards a Global Compact on responsibility sharing for refugees to safeguard the rights of refugees, while also effectively and predictably supporting States affected by such movements. The Council of Europe closely followed the adoption and contributed to both the Global Compact on Refugees and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. The Special Representative on Migration and Refugees participated in the consultation phase in respect to both Compacts orally and in writing over the course of 2017. He has continued to engage with the process during the negotiation phase which began in early 2018 with the publication of the drafts of both Compacts. The Special Representative submitted written comments on the Global Compact on Refugees in June 2018, underlining the importance of placing human rights protection at the heart of the text and the key role that the Council of Europe can play in helping European states especially achieve the objectives and actions envisaged in the Compact. On 10-11 December 2018, the Special Representative represented the Council of Europe at the Intergovernmental Conference to adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. The Council of Europe, with its system for human rights protection, is now ready to engage in the implementation of the Global Compacts. 3B – Address the vulnerabilities of migrants and provide more regular and lawful opportunities for migration Commitment 1 - The Secretary General commits to using all means available to him to ensure that legislation introduced by Council of Europe member states to control the flow of migrants and asylum seekers into their
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