5th Warsaw Seminar on Human Rights Warsaw, 29 September – 1 October 2011 Warsaw 2011 1 Welcome Addresses Jacek Czaputowicz Director of the National School of Public Administration Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honor and pleasure to open the Warsaw Seminar on Human Rights. Let me firstly welcome the Government agents, representatives of the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights, the European Union, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, representatives of non-governmental organizations, academics, scholars and other experts in the field of human rights. This is already the fifth Warsaw Seminar on Human Rights. This year it has a special character, as it also falls within the first Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. During the next two days you will have a unique possibility to exchange views on the most important issues related to the future reform of the Strasbourg system and its relation to the European Union system. The Seminar is divided into four thematic panels. First panel is devoted to national minorities in the light of the implications of the Lisbon Treaty. The aim of the panel is to undertake the discussion on further activities of the European Union pertaining to the national minorities issues. In the second panel, devoted to the rights of elderly persons, the keynote speech will be held by the special guest of the fifth Warsaw Seminar – the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Mr. Thomas Hammarberg. I hope that this panel will constitute a promising point of departure for further debate on this issue at the European level, especially that on 14 September 2011 the European Parliament and the Council decided that the year 2012 will be European Year for Active Aging and Solidarity between Generations. 2 In the third panel you will take a look at the problematic relation between the freedom of expression and the right to respect for private life. In this part our attention will be also focused on the question of freedom of speech in the Internet and the approaches to the criminal sanctions for defamatory statements. The fourth panel is the follow-up to the last year’s Warsaw Seminar discussion on current issues related to the European Convention on Human Rights System. This year, you will have an opportunity to discuss some concrete aspects of the Strasbourg system, such as an idea of a general domestic remedy or the role of the Government Agents. Within this panel, you will also be able to discuss the current state of the reform of the Strasbourg system after the Interlaken and Izmir Declarations and the challenges to its future. Concluding my welcome speech, I would like to mention some words about the National School of Public Administration. It has been founded after the fall of the Socialist system with a view to train competent, politically neutral civil servants, capable of being held to account for all matters conferred upon them. The program of the National School of Public Administration also includes the training on human rights standards. In this context, allow me to thank Mr. Jakub Wołąsiewicz, Government Agent of Poland, the inventor of the idea of Warsaw Seminars on Human Rights, who also trains our students on human rights. I believe that the tradition of Warsaw Seminars will contribute to the development of the European Human Rights protection system. I wish you a productive discussion and a pleasant stay in Warsaw. Thank you. 3 Maciej Szpunar Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my great pleasure to welcome you at the Warsaw Seminar, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the fifth time already. I have been closely following the dynamic development of this event, which year after year has been attracting more and more distinguished experts and academics. This edition of the Seminar is especially significant as it is organized under the auspices of Poland’s first EU Presidency. Therefore, this year we will have the chance to discuss topics which do not focus solely on the Council of Europe’s activities, but also relate to EU policies and regulations. In particular, we have decided to draw the participants’ attention to such subjects as the protection of national minorities in the light of the Treaty of Lisbon, the rights of elderly persons in Europe, freedom of expression and respect of privacy, and finally, the challenges facing the reform of the European Convention system. One major challenge to the Strasbourg system will inevitably be caused by the historic process leading to the accession of the European Union to the Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The process provides us with a unique opportunity to observe how the Council of Europe and the European Union are becoming intertwined in a pan-European human rights protection system. I would like to devote my presentation to this new cooperation between the two organizations. It seems appropriate to start by asking why EU accession to the Convention is necessary. The development of the European Union and its gradual shift from a strictly economic dimension towards a more individual-oriented approach has resulted in an extension of its competences, which also covers the area of human rights. It should be noted that EU regulations and decisions remain outside the competence of human rights monitoring bodies. Such a lacuna weakens the European standards of judicial human rights protection, developed in order to protect human beings from the arbitrary legislation and administration of public authorities. Since the Union has acquired powers that can directly or indirectly affect the rights and freedoms of individuals, it was indispensable to subject it to the most developed and effective human rights protection system – the Strasbourg system. Thereby, EU accession to the Convention was envisaged in order to satisfy the requirement inherited from Roman law and formulated in Latin phrase: ‘ubi ius, ibi remedium’ (‘where there is a right, there is a remedy’). 4 We should expect that the accession will have far-reaching political and practical implications for increasing the level of European human rights protection, as well as for strengthening the key role of the Convention system in Europe. Simultaneously, it will enhance the credibility of the European Union towards its Member States and external partners, showing its real involvement in respecting fundamental rights and freedoms. The process of the EU’s accession and future membership in the Convention system also constitutes an absorbing topic and challenge for lawyers. As the Under-Secretary of State responsible for legal and treaty issues and the Government Plenipotentiary for Proceedings before the Court of Justice of the European Union, I could not omit this aspect of the accession. How to ensure the EU’s legal autonomy, as safeguarded by the Court of Justice, after subjecting the Union to the Strasbourg control mechanism? How to develop a mechanism guaranteeing that future complaints to the European Court of Human Rights will be correctly addressed against one or more Member States and/or the Union? We should also start considering the accession’s possible negative effects, such as its potential impact on the excessive length of proceedings before the European Court. These and other issues constitute fascinating dilemmas for both EU lawyers and those specializing in human rights, and will have to be solved in the near future. An important stage of the Accession Agreement was reached in June 2011 with the completion of the work of the CDDH-EU expert group. However, equally interesting phases of this process are still ahead of us, especially those involving the political debates on the draft. In the run-up to work on the draft Accession Agreement, to begin in October this year, it is worth mentioning the very upbeat comment of the CoE Secretary General, Mr Jagland, spelt out at the Madrid Conference in February 2010: ‘With the Lisbon Treaty and Protocol 14, this is no longer the question of “if” it is only a question of “when”. The accession will be demanding and will require a good deal of effort. But where there is a will there is a way.’ The draft Accession Agreement guarantees the rights of individuals prescribed by the Convention and safeguards the specific characteristics of both the Strasbourg system and the EU legal order. It introduces several innovative mechanisms, such as the co-respondent mechanism and the prior involvement of the Court of Justice, aimed at facilitating the smooth operation of the European Court of Human Rights and adjusting the Convention system to its functioning in the new configuration. Moreover, the draft also envisages the principle of equal rights of all parties to the Convention, grants the Union voting rights in the process of supervising the execution of judgments in the Committee of Ministers and entitles the Union to appoint its own judge. Simultaneously, internal regulations, which the EU will have to adopt in view of the accession to regulate its participation in proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights, are still being discussed at the EU level. This is a key phase for the EU, since only the adoption of properly drafted internal rules will safeguard the timely and efficient fulfillment of EU obligations stemming from its future membership in the Convention system. This is especially important for us since, as the Presidency, we have the unique opportunity to not only participate in the process, but also to influence it. From our side, let me assure you that Poland will strive to ensure effective and 5 productive work on the EU’s internal regulations which will further guarantee the smooth functioning of the Strasbourg system and the rights and freedoms of EU citizens.