03/12/2015 News | European Convention on Human Rights
“Terrorism has struck defenceless people, and human rights are first and foremost something that embody people’s actual lives before being the abstract principles of our system. People do not have rights, they are human rights in themselves, and any affront to or violence against a person constitutes an infringement of the law, of this individual and collective model of life which sees justice as its own measure, its own achievement and its own means of progressing in harmony with the lives of others. Reaffirming human rights is the same, above all, as reaffirming everyone’s right to a free, peaceful and full life”, stated the Chair of the Italian Delegation to and Vice-President of PACE, Michele Nicoletti, at the Conference on “The Conscience of Europe” held in Rome on 1 December to mark the 65th anniversary of the signature of the European Convention on Human Rights.
“Many other violations of human rights are committed in the world, in Europe and even in our own country, and the attention we pay to some cannot erase our concern for others such as freedom of opinion, freedom of the press, freedom of association and the freedom to live in full accord with one’s own religious or other beliefs, sexual orientation or allegiance to an ethnic or linguistic community. Europe is still beset by too many violations, which affect women, children, migrants, refugees, the sick, the elderly and prisoners, to cite but a few. Our western protection system has been considerably weakened over the years of economic crisis and there has been a resurgence of problems such as racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in both the West and the East.
This alone would be enough to justify a rereading of the European Convention on Human Rights, which we in Italy always like to associate with the Social Charter of the Council of Europe. In signing the latter, Italy reflected its desire to be a cradle of human rights in all their universality and indivisibility, from civil and political right to social rights”, said Mr Nicoletti.
“The history of the last 65 years in Italy and in Europe shows the extraordinary value of the Convention and then the Court. On our path to greater respect for human rights as legislators and governors but also as journalists and members of civil society, the Court’s decisions often both light our way and act as a spur.
In this sense, the Court is truly the “conscience of Europe”, as was also asserted at the Hague Congress and reiterated recently in Strasbourg by Pope Francis, who pointed out that, like all authentic views of humankind, this conscience simply reflected secular and religious sensibilities whose earnest desire was for humankind to flourish, not to deteriorate.
It is our task – including in our discussions today – not only to commemorate but also to give substance to the principles of the Convention, to support the Court in its work and to equip ourselves with all the necessary instruments, including parliamentary ones, to increase the level of compliance with human rights in our legislative and administrative measures. In other parliaments, there are specific instruments designed not only to ensure that judgments are enforced but also to check that legislation complies with Convention standards and hence to prevent disputes and possible rulings against the state. In the process of constitutional reform upon which the Italian parliament is about to embark, it will therefore be desirable to review the current supervisory instruments, which have yielded outstanding results in the human rights field, and to enhance their capacity for prevention and harmonisation with the European legal framework”, concluded Michele Nicoletti.