Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s new Commissioner for Human Rights, took up his post on 1 April after heading the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights until December 2023. (Interview by Véronique Leblanc)
Agence Europe: You are the first Commissioner for Human Rights to take up your post in a Europe at war. How do you approach these exceptionally serious circumstances?
Michael O’Flaherty: The Russian aggression against Ukraine is the greatest challenge confronting Europe today.
It’s not just a geopolitical challenge, it’s profoundly a challenge of human rights. It’s about the human rights of the people of Ukraine, the people in the occupied territories, and for the children abducted into Russia, but it’s also about the human rights of everybody because if Russia is allowed to win this aggression, that is, in a way, the beginning of the end of the project of values that we have invested so heavily in Europe.
That is why my first visit outside Strasbourg will be to Kyiv in the coming days.
The resurgence of conflict in the Middle East has led to a rise in antisemitism and attacks on Muslims in our societies. How can they be countered?
In my previous work at the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, we periodically surveyed these communities, and we found very worrying and growing levels of hatred, exclusion, and physical danger. So, I will keep very close to this issue and I will continue to draw attention to their situation in every way possible.
The European Court of Human Rights has just handed down a landmark ruling condemning Switzerland for failing to act on climate change, an area that you have identified as one of your priorities for strengthening human rights. How do you envisage your action?
The first is the transition to a green economy, it must be done in a way that is just. It must bring everybody equally along. It's not automatic that if you are poor and living already on the edge of society, that you will be able to make the transition in the same way as those who have wealth and who have jobs and education.
The second aspect is that the judgment in the Swiss case has given me encouragement to advocate these issues as a matter of human rights law.
The judgment reminds us that the risks caused by the climate crisis concern the right to life as set out in the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court did not invent a new right. This is a game changer for us.
And third, if necessary, I will work for the implementation of the judgment.
How do you see the connection between your previous mandate as head of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency and your current position at the Council of Europe?
They must work together in defence of human rights.
What I learned most deeply in the EU was the importance of evidence, of data to defend our claims. The statistical work that the fundamental rights Agency did was really very, very important.
As Commissioner, I don’t have the same resources so I will not be able to gather data in the same way, but I can work with governments to encourage them to collect this data.
Second is, of course, that the European Union is close to acceding to the European Convention on Human Rights. This is a huge development and I will play my role as Commissioner to support that exercise and to support the EU to be fully compliant with the Convention because it doesn’t get everything perfectly right and it also needs to be supported in the same way that I want to work with the Member States.
Let me add that it’s not just about a very close partnership with the European Union, we also have to deepen the partnership with the United Nations and with the OSCE. We need to work in a more horizontal way, we need to be together, stronger, united more than ever.
The UN, which is increasingly accused of being powerless...
I don’t accept this claim that the UN is at the end of its power and its influence. I used to work for the UN. I have seen how every day, quietly, it has achievements.
Every day, UNICEF makes life better for a child and yet somehow that doesn’t make the headlines.
So we should not be careless in rejecting it or undervaluing it, but instead, we should find ways to engage with it so that together, we can have an even deeper impact.
What are your other priorities?
There are two issues that are on my table right now.
The first is standing up for the human rights of the Roma community where levels of discrimination, harassment and hate directed against them is totally unacceptable.
The second issue is that I remain very concerned about the issue on our borders. I'm looking with anxiety at what we call the externalisation of migration management, this increasing tendency to involve other countries in doing the work, which raises a lot of human rights concerns.
This is the reason why I will be paying and drawing attention to these challenges in the coming months.