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SG Inf(2018)23 Speaking Notes SG 1317 Deputies Information Documents SG/Inf(2018)23 30 May 20181 ———————————————— Speaking Notes of the Secretary General to the 1317th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (30 May 2018) _____________________________ Item 1.3 Recent events 128th session of the Committee of Ministers, Elsinore (Denmark), 17-18 May Meeting with Ms Victoria Iftodi, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Moldova, 24 May Meeting with Mr David Stanton, Minister of State for Justice at the Department of Justice and Equality of Ireland, 24 May Meeting with Mr Arman Tatoyan, Ombudsman of Armenia, 28 May European Court of Human Rights Item 8.1 Exchange of views with Mr Aleksander Čeferin, President of the UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) 1 This document has been classified restricted at the date of issue; it will be declassified in accordance with Resolution Res(2001)6 on access to CoE documents. SG/Inf(2018)23 2 Recent events I was informed yesterday evening of the killing of another journalist, this time in Kyiv. Arkady Babchenko was a prominent Russian journalist known for his articles concerning conflict zones. His murder raises serious concerns for the profession of journalism and freedom of speech. I strongly condemn this killing: aggression towards journalists, the watchdogs of democracy, is unacceptable. Everything possible should be done to investigate this horrendous act and to bring the perpetrators to justice. I would also like to take this opportunity to repeat my concerns about the health of Ukrainian film-maker Oleg Sentsov, who has been deprived of his liberty in Russia since 2014. He is on hunger strike and I have received alarming reports about his health. I call for his release on humanitarian grounds. Finally, I also have concerns about the fate of the Ukrainian journalist, Kirill Vyshinsky, from Ria Novosti Ukraine, who was arrested recently and faces a heavy sentence on state treason charges in Ukraine. 128th session of the Committee of Ministers, Elsinore (Denmark), 17-18 May Following the summing up by the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen, at the dinner discussions held during the Ministerial Session in Elsinore, I intend to submit proposals to you on the basis of these discussions and in particular in areas we raised during our Retreat last April. I have therefore asked Jan Kleijssen to lead this work under my authority, which will be done in close consultation with the Chair and your Committee. The first issue I intend to tackle is the financial sustainability of our Organisation. A paper containing proposals will be ready for discussion in the autumn. I will also examine governance issues in our Organisation, as well as intra-institutional relations, to bring clarity of responsibilities between the statutory organs. A starting point for this work will be to ask the legal adviser to describe the current state of play as set out in the Statute, in statutory resolutions and in regulations in the Parliamentary Assembly. In order to further strengthen good governance and accountability within the Secretariat, I have instructed our services to draft a general framework of delegation of authority. This will define the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders to whom authority is delegated on my behalf for the duration of my mandate. This framework will not affect the distribution of tasks already agreed between the Deputy Secretary General and myself and the authority delegated to her. This delegation has recently been repeated and for the sake of clarity, it will be published on the Deputy Secretary General’s website. Meeting with Ms Victoria Iftodi, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Moldova, 24 May Last Thursday I met with the new Moldovan Minister of Justice, Ms Victoria Iftodi. Our discussion focussed on the justice sector reforms for which we have provided assistance over recent months and years. We will continue to do this in the framework of our Action Plan for Moldova 2017-2020. The Minister informed me about measures taken in Moldova to fight corruption. We also discussed the issue of the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. 3 SG/Inf(2018)23 Mr David Stanton, Minister of State for Justice at the Department of Justice and Equality of Ireland, 24 May Last Thursday I also met Mr David Stanton, Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality of Ireland. Mr Stanton was in Strasbourg to participate in ECRI’s Seminar on equality bodies and to sign an agreement to make a voluntary contribution to support the Council of Europe’s work promoting human rights and equality for LGBTI people, for which we are grateful. Among other things, we discussed the importance of national equality bodies for the implementation of ECRI’s recommendations and recent positive measures taken by Ireland in the fields of gender equality and migrant integration, as well as progress made towards the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. Meeting with Mr Arman Tatoyan, Ombudsman of Armenia, 28 May On Monday I met with the Armenian Ombudsman, Mr Arman Tatoyan. We had an exchange on the events that preceded the election of the new Prime Minister and the role the Ombudsman and his Office has been playing. The main priorities during these events were to contain the use of force by the police and to limit expressions of hate and intolerance. The Ombudsman’s Office has been working on a 24/7 basis to monitor the situation. We also discussed further co-operation between the Ombudsman’s Office and the Council of Europe, in particular justice reform and the fight against corruption. European Court of Human Rights I also have some comments with regard to the European Court of Human Rights. As you may have read in recent months, our Court has faced criticism over its approach to Turkish cases introduced after the attempted coup. There are those who say that it works too slowly and who question its capacity to provide legal protection for those affected by state of emergency measures. Particular concerns have been expressed for those deprived of their liberty. These criticisms come from different groups: people in Turkey affected by state of emergency measures, NGOs, lawyers, journalists and academics, all of whom have high expectations of our Court. These people have a right to be heard and we do hear them. But we should not remain silent in the face of criticism that is unjust, in particular regarding the Court’s role. It must be remembered that the Court is a court, and it has to work like a court. Any court has established its own procedures which it must respect. And it has to work on the basis of the law. In this case the law is the European Convention on Human Rights. SG/Inf(2018)23 4 It is the first order principle in the Convention, Article 35, paragraph 1, in that national courts must first be given the opportunity to examine allegations of human rights violations. There must be clear evidence that the national court system is not functioning properly, before the Court can take on board applications directly. Therefore, the Court is following closely the work of the Commission set up for the dismissed people and the role of the Constitutional Court, and may intervene if it is proven that they do not work on the basis of the European Convention on Human Rights. We all have a duty to preserve and protect the Court and the Convention system, and I call on all of you to help with explaining how the Court is working. I am also looking into ways in which the Council of Europe can communicate more effectively about our activities, including the Court’s. Our efforts are dedicated to ensuring that our member state implements effectively its commitments under the Convention and to assist its authorities in achieving this. *** Item 8.1 Exchange of views with Mr Aleksander Čeferin, President of the UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) I am pleased to welcome Mr Čeferin to the Council of Europe and to mark this occasion with the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding between our two organisations, of which your Committee took note on 9 May. I agree with you: we should team up. As I have said many times, sport is an essential part of democracy and helps strengthen social fabric. But there are many open fronts in the fight for safe and ethical sports for all. And our three main sport conventions contribute to that effort. UEFA was the first sports organisation to request membership status in the Consultative Committee of our Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport. It is also an observer in our sports conventions committees and a key partner in a number of our projects. The MoU we are about to sign will create a sustained inter-institutional dialogue allowing us to position our co-operation at a strategic and political level. We are also confident that UEFA will use our expertise in the fields of good governance, access to justice, gender equality, child protection and the fight against corruption and trafficking. The Conference of Ministers responsible for Sport organised by our Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport in October in Tbilisi will tackle a number of these critical issues and we are pleased that Mr Čeferin’s presence and contribution will help facilitate the discussions around good governance. .
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