Further action to be taken by Member States in connection with the European Convention on Human Rights and Protocol thereto
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- This Recommendation
was adopted by the Assembly at its twenty-second Sitting, on 24th
September, 1953 (see Doc. 205,
Report of the Committee on Legal and Administrative Questions).
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
While expressing its deep satisfaction at the entry into force
of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms, which constitutes an important step towards the achievement
of one of the essential aims of the Council of Europe,
Recommends to the Committee of Ministers that the following
recommendations should be transmitted to the Governments of Member
States :
1. It is extremely desirable that those States which
have not yet deposited their instruments of ratification either
of the Convention or of the Protocol should do so as soon as possible,
for any delay in the final acceptance of these agreements by any
Member of the Council of Europe is prejudicial to the prestige of
the Organisation and leads to difficulties in connection with the
setting up of the European Commission of Human Rights.
2. The Assembly has, from the first, considered it essential
for the protection of human rights that any person claiming to be
the victim of a violation, by one of the High Contracting Parties,
of his rights should be able to submit his complaint to an international
organ direct, for the purpose of investigation and conciliation, without
having to seek the support of a Government, whose intervention would
have the effect of transforming the complaint of an individual into
a dispute between States. It was this consideration which led to
the institution of the European Commission of Human Rights. The
Assembly strongly urges the States which have not yet done so to
take the step envisaged in Article 25 of the Convention and recognise
the competence of the Commission to hear individual petitions.
3. The Assembly, likewise, regards it as preferable that any
complaint which the Commission considers legitimate, and which it
is not able to settle by conciliation, should be referred to a judicial
rather than a political organ. It, therefore, wishes to impress
upon the Governments of Member States the desirability of declaring, in
accordance with Article 46 of the Convention, that they accept the
compulsory jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.
4. Finally, the Assembly draws the attention of those Member
States which are responsible for the international relations of
non-metropolitan territories to the suspicion and strictures to
which they would be exposing themselves if they were to reject the
extension of the benefits of the Convention and Protocol to the peoples
of those territories. It is, therefore, the Assembly's earnest hope
that the Governments concerned will be prepared to reconsider the
possibility of making a declaration such as is envisaged in Article
63 of the Convention and Article 4 of the Protocol.
