Statement at Council of Europe, 121st Session of the Committee of Ministers

The following text is based on a transcription
of the speech from the meeting:

I would like to join previous speakers in thanking Turkey – and you personally – for a productive chairmanship and also the tremendous hospitality here in Istanbul. 

Now, I would like to make three brief remarks.  

First, I would like to focus on the mandate we have given to the Secretary General on modernising and revitalising our Organisation.  

I would like to compliment him on the efforts thus far. We strongly support these reforms. I believe yesterday’s debate among Ministers was a good start of having more political and more focused discussions on relevant issues. We need a more focused and visible organisation that can make a difference for all Europeans. I would wish that we as Ministers would mandate the Organisation and the  Secretary General to take these reforms forward in a way which is not being absorbed and swamped internal bureaucratic discussions but really continue to stay focused on how we can make this Organisation, its values and its instruments really valuable for Europeans, also to have that extra energy to do the neighbourhood policy, that what we discussed yesterday in the evening that we will not teach lessons but  make experience available to emerging democracies in Northern Africa. 

My second remark I have to make concerns the European Court of Human Rights, I think the cornerstone and the real treasure of this Organisation. Despite reform efforts, we know it is in a state of absolute crisis with a backlog of over 150 000 cases. 

We welcome the initiative and the Izmir Declaration, but we need further actions. Too many cases are being referred to Strasbourg where member states have failed to resolve well-known problems in their national systems. So it’s we, the states, who have to live up to our responsibility to implement the European Convention on Human Rights and I would wish there would be stronger mechanism by which we  could really hold states accountable to do their job so that we do not load problems on Strasbourg. 

Thirdly, I would like to welcome the report that we discusses yesterday – “Living together in 21st century Europe”. I hope the Secretary General will follow up to see how we can make this report available for debates across Europe, not fix a common denominator among member states – because the common denominator is the European Convention on Human Rights and values – but a range for debate which is really lively and useful. 

And finally, I would like to conclude by welcoming the proposals for how the Council of Europe could promote and protect human rights in the areas affected by the conflict in Georgia. We believe that important aspects on this situation are directly relevant to the obligations of Russia and Georgia as members of the Council of Europe. These have to be duly addressed also by the Council of Europe. 

I would like to thank Turkey, and you personally Ahmet, for your excellent chairmanship and I welcome Kostyantyn in his position and he can rely on Norway’s focused support during his months of chairmanship.