Individual petitions under the Convention on Human Rights
Motion for a recommendation
| Doc. 394
| 19 July 1955
The
Assembly,
Conscious that recognition by the minimum number of
States stipulated in the Convention on Human Rights of the competence of the
Commission to deal with individual petitions constitutes an important step
forward ;
Noting, however, that many Member States have not yet
made any declaration to this effect, so that complaints against them can only
be considered if taken up by a Member State;
Considering that, in
practice, Governments may not wish to assume responsibility for what might
appear to be an unfriendly act, and that it is therefore to be feared that for
many States the Convention may remain a dead letter.
Recommends to
the Committee of Ministers :
1 that it request
the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe to transmit to it all individual
petitions, addressed either to himself or to the Commission of Human Rights,
which are directed against States that do not acknowledge the Commission's
competence to deal with such petitions and which are not prima facie
inadmissible;
2 that it request the Governments of Member
States to do likewise with regard to individual petitions addressed to them if
they are themselves unwilling to be responsible for referring them to the
Commission of Human Rights ;
3 that it decide that petitions
transmitted to it in this way, or directly addressed to it, be examined by
sub-committees of three members, which- would, in appropriate cases, bring them
before the
Commission.
