Strasbourg, 29/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - Niels Muiznieks from Latvia was elected Commissioner for Human Rights by the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly in January 2012. On 23 April he presented his first annual report. It must be said that the fears he expressed when he took up his role as year ago have been borne out. During an interview with EUROPE at the time, he said that he was concerned by the economic crisis in which he located the main danger to human rights in Europe because it made the situation for the most socially vulnerable people in Europe even more fragile. These people included the Roma and migrants. The Commissioner explained that the economic crisis weakened the institutions representing human rights, such as the ombudsmen. Now with the hands-on experience gained during visits to 11 of the 47 member countries of the Council of Europe and he removes nothing from the concerns previously expressed.
He said that “to the persistent problems of discrimination, racism and homophobia, the treatment of migrants, increased vulnerability of children, exclusion of the handicapped, constraints to freedom of expression and the inefficiency of national judicial systems” can be added “austerity measures which create additional tensions, highlight the interdependence of the various human rights” and “undermine all that has been gained social and economic rights since the war”. He also said that civil and political rights have also been affected, “including access to justice, conditions in detention and relations between the police and the public”. Muiznieks added that “in many countries, key institutions for human rights protection, such as the courts and national human rights structures, have been weakened by excessive budget cuts”. He said that these general conclusions needed a degree of qualification and a report allowed for more country-specific explanations. The text takes account of the increase in child poverty in Portugal, for example, and warns against the already high levels of early school drop outs in the context of education budget cuts, as well as highlighting the risk of a resurgence in child labour, particularly in the informal economy and farming. Nonetheless, the Commissioner is delighted that human rights are being better taken into account in Austria, particularly through the national action plan set up to help persons with disabilities. He is, however, demanding that children's rights prevail and be duly taken into account when asylum seekers' applications are made and he criticised the complexity of the country's procedures in this respect. Another failing identified in the Muiznieks report relates to the sluggish rate at which certain member states apply rulings by the European Court of human rights. He indicated that more than five years after the ruling by the Grand Chamber with regard to the Czech Republic, many Roma children still continue to be subject to an education that was more suited to those with slight disabilities. The Commissioner continues to call on member states to address the question of the Roma, which is already the focus of different action and campaigns headed by the Council of Europe, as illustrated in his report. He continues to exert pressure and make recommendations, just he does with regard to the risks inherent in the austerity measures created by the crisis or in the context of other subjects on which he focuses. These subjects include the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals and transgender, as well as those relating to the freedom of expression and the media, particularly human rights in the context of the internet. (VL/trans.fl)