Strasbourg, 05/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - Elected in January this year by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Niels Muiznieks of Latvia took up his duties as Commissioner for Human Rights on 1 April. This is a new challenge for Muiznieks, who already has 20 years of experience in this field not only in his own country but also as chairman of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), from 2010 to 2012.
Muiznieks explained that he was specialised in these questions and that this is a real opportunity for him to continue work on the problem of human rights in the broadest sense, and to cover the 47 states of the Council of Europe. Working within the pan-European institution in a totally independent way, the commissioner for human rights works in cooperation with the Council of Europe Anti-Torture Committee and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (ECHR). Dealing with structural problems of member states and helping to implement the rulings of the ECHR concerning them - those are his objectives, Niels Muiznieks states. The prevention part is extremely important in a context of ECHR clogging and explains perhaps why, in eight years, thanks to the effectiveness of the two first human rights commissioners, Alvaro Gil-Roblès and Thomas Hammarberg, the service has grown from 7 to 25 members of staff most of whom are lawyers from different countries, the human rights commissioner said.
Prior to taking up his duties, Muiznieks accompanied his predecessor, Thomas Hammarberg, to Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. That, he explains, was a good experience for him to see his predecessor at work in his contacts with the heads of state and government and with the different NGOs. He added that he would therefore be conducting his own work on the basis of sound work already carried out.
There are three visits already on Muiznieks' agenda: - to Austria, Finland and Portugal. “These are countries that the commissioner has not visited for some time. The themes that I shall tackle will include the fight against discrimination and the consequences of the economic crisis on the protection of human rights, in particular for the most vulnerable persons”, he said. Niels Muiznieks sees the main danger of the crisis is for human rights in Europe. “This makes more fragile the situation of persons in the most precarious situation from the social point of view, as well as the Roma, migrants, etc., but it also weakens the national institutions for the protection of human rights, such as mediators. Not to mention the extremist and populist slide that it brings about”. Hungary is also on the commissioner's agenda, “but not immediately”. “My predecessor was the first to sound the alarm bell about the freedom of the media and religious confession in that country”, he pointed out. He underlined that the Council of Europe is in contact with the European Commission on this subject and that the Venice Commission has been requested to contribute with its expertise. “Some results are expected for end June. I am following all that very closely while, on the side of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly from which we are independent, the major question is that of opening up follow-up procedure regarding the respect of Hungary's obligations and commitments”. Another key theme in the objectives of the new commissioner is the protection of older people's rights. “This question will become increasingly crucial in the future”, he said, “and we have not paid much attention to it so far although real problems of dignity are being raised”. Over the next six years, therefore, there is major work to be done for a man who speaks Latvian, French, English and Russia with ease, and who plans to strengthen links with the European Union and the UN, mainly by strengthening cooperation with the latter through the Refugee Agency and UNICEF. (VL/transl.jl)