Published last April in the midst of the pandemic, the 2019 activity report by Dunja Mijatović, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, could not be debated in the Parliamentary Assembly (PACE). It was held on Tuesday 13 October, at the extended virtual meeting of the Standing Committee, organised in place of the autumn plenary, which has still not been able to be held in person.
Questioned by videoconference, the Commissioner preferred to base her introduction on 2020, “a year in which the challenges, already growing in 2019, have been made even more urgent by the Covid-19 pandemic and the measures taken to deal with it”.
“This crisis has tested the functioning of our democracies” by having a “disproportionate impact” on the elderly, the disabled, the poor, prisoners, migrants and asylum seekers, said Mrs Mijatović. So many impacted vulnerable populations are, according to her, in increased insecurity, often “because of structural failures and previous failures”.
“The management of the pandemic has also put the spotlight on violence against women, including in the area of sexual and reproductive health”, said Dunja Mijatović, who is concerned that some States are challenging the Istanbul Convention while others [Poland and Turkey] are threatening to denounce it, which would be “a terrible step backwards”.
“The pandemic has accelerated problems that we didn't want to deal with. No country will be able to solve them alone. We will need multilateralism”, the Commissioner concluded, stressing the role of ombudsmen and that of PACE members, all national parliamentarians informed about the standards promoted by the Council of Europe.
See the report: https://bit.ly/3jQdv30 (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)