In order to draw on the expertise of the Council of Europe in producing its report on the impact of Covid-19 on human rights and the rule of law, the European Parliament Sub-Committee on Human Rights organised a video conference that took place on 30 April.
The event, which can be accessed on the organisation's YouTube platform, brought together the Commissioner for Human Rights, the president of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, the chair of the Consultative Committee of Convention 108 (the data protection convention), as well as Nicos Alivizatos, the rapporteur on states of emergency for the Venice Commission, and Georg Stawa, the former President of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice.
Alivizatos believes that the fundamental question involves the temporary nature of the emergency measures. He stressed the importance of parliamentary and judicial oversight, but acknowledged the difficulty of convening an assembly during a pandemic. Interesting experiments are under way, he noted, particularly in Greece, where a rotation system enables a limited number of MEPs to be physically present while allowing all members to participate in electronic voting.
Stawa also expressed concern about an unwarranted continuation of special measures. Fear of a second, third and subsequent waves could be one argument, he insisted, stressing that the “rule of law is not on sick leave”. Although the health crisis does require technical measures to be taken, it would be dangerous to get used to them. Stawa also observed that this crisis may provide the judiciary with an opportunity to explore new processes that would improve its procedural efficiency. Although using video conferencing would be tricky in court hearings, it might represent an option for technical meetings.
More information can be found at: https://bit.ly/2WDvm31 Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)