News
JUSTICE welcomes the assumption by the UK of Chairmanship of the Council of Europe
7 November 2011
JUSTICE issues a joint statement with a consortium of human rights organisations as the UK assumes Council of Europe Chairmanship today.The goal of enhancing protection of human rights in Europe is something we can all get behind. We support the UK's concern to reform the European Court of Human Rights – which is clearly overloaded - but we are concerned that this is an evidence-based discussion, based on what the Court is already doing about prioritisation and making its work effective. The UK and other countries must also continue to recognise the supervisory role of the European Court of Human Rights as an international tribunal with the last word on interpretation of the ECHR. It is crucial that implementation of the Convention be, as the Court has previously stated 'practical and effective' not 'theoretical and illusory'. Minimum standards in the ECHR must be embedded not only in the national legal frameworks of states that are subject to the Convention but given full effect on the ground.
Read the Joint Statement.
Notes
1 The signatories of the Joint NGO Statement are Amnesty International, the AIRE Centre, the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC), INTERIGHTS, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (HFHR), Human Rights Watch, JUSTICE and Liberty. The UK will hold the Chairmanship of the Council of Europe for six months from today.