- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting
on behalf of the Assembly, on 1 July 1983. See Doc. 5086, report of the Political
Affairs Committee.
- Thesaurus
1. Recalling its continuous work to
promote democracy, and notably the conferences and colloquies it organised
on the development of democratic institutions (1976), on the role
of political parties (1978), and on technology and democracy (1981),
as well as the positions it had adopted with respect to threats
to democracy such as the resurgence of fascist and racist ideology
(1980) and terrorism (1982);
2. Noting that the Committee of Ministers, too, has made important
contributions towards the definition of democracy, notably by adopting
declarations on intolerance (1981), freedom of expression, and the development
of citizen participation in the management of local affairs (1982);
3. Considering the results of the Colloquy on the concept of
democracy organised by its Political and Legal Affairs Committees
(Strasbourg, 23-25 March 1983);
4. Noting that the concept of democracy, which derives from a
belief in the inalienable dignity and equal value of every individual
human being, means that the citizen should be given every opportunity
to influence, through voluntary participation, social and professional
as well as political life in a spirit of solidarity, and that the
democratic principle also has consequences for international relations;
5. Convinced that, important and indispensable as the criteria
of the rule of law and equality before the law are, the mechanisms
of democracy must be first of all a reflection of a living ethic,
respectful of plurality of beliefs and the right to dissent,
6. Proclaims the following principles, which take on added importance
at a time when economic recession tends to encourage egotistic reflexes
by individuals and nations:
A. Social and professional life
i Education for democracy
in school and beyond is necessary to ensure awareness, especially
on the part of the young, upon whom the future of democracy depends,
that they are heirs to a noble ideal whose roots lie deep in the
Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian culture of Europe, but contains no
element of ethnic or cultural superiority or exclusiveness, being,
on the contrary, essentially universal, based on human dignity.
ii Education in human rights is equally necessary, also to
ensure understanding that the enjoyment of rights is inseparable
from responsibility.
iii Free, pluralistic mass media have an important education
role to play.
iv In professional life, as elsewhere, individuals can only
become fully responsible and capable of exercising democratic freedoms
of choice if they are given access to the fullest information concerning their
own situation and that of their firm or organisation.
v Democratic principles require that consent should be freely
given, rather than compelled, though legislation is justified to
protect the weak, lacking the bargaining power to protect their
interests.
B. Political and institutional life
i Free elections, with secret
ballot and universal suffrage, at reasonable intervals, to parliaments,
enjoying a large measure of sovereignty and composed of representatives
of political parties with freedom to organise and express themselves,
remain the irreplaceable core of democratic political life.
ii Such elections, though indispensable, are not in themselves
sufficient, since the citizen’s political rights cannot be limited
to the act of casting a vote at intervals of some years. On the
contrary, democracy atrophies without frequent participation by
citizens who should, wherever possible, be consulted on matters
closely concerning them, through appropriate mechanisms; only full
political participation enables democracy to attain that adaptability
to changing circumstances which justifies our faith in its material,
as well as moral superiority.
iii Elections should not result in excessive concentration
of power (doctrine of separation of powers, or even division between
government and opposition power). These principles also apply to
all subordinate or autonomous authorities in countries with federal
or decentralised systems of government.
iv Elected representatives lose credibility with the voters
if, in today’s situation (characterised by a growing workload resulting
from increasing scope and complexity of government action), they
seem to delegate their responsibilities to a depersonalised and
computerised bureaucracy.
v The tendency of citizens to organise, in sometimes highly
militant pressure groups and "single-interest" groups, outside the
political parties, is a salutary warning, fully compatible with
the democratic principle of freedom, to the parties that they must
not fail in their essential function of articulating the real concerns of
their electors.
vi The responsibility of elected representatives is much
increased by the fact that, due to modern science and technology,
their decisions may have irreversible consequences on the human
and natural environment, affecting future generations and humanity
itself.
C. International relations
i The democracies will inevitably
lose respect internationally and among their own young people, who despise
hypocrisy, if they support oppressive dictatorial regimes, and appear
complacent about the gap between North and South and hunger in the
world. Politicians should not neglect their educational function,
and should trust their electorate by placing them squarely before
the facts and options, so that the necessary decisions (whose unpopularity
is assumed rather than tested) may be taken before mankind faces
further tragedy.
ii Just as migrant workers should not be refused appropriate
political rights in the host countries to whose wealth they contribute,
underprivileged sectors of mankind must be helped to benefit from
a more just distribution of the earth’s resources and thereby to
attain and pass the minimum level of material well-being compatible
with human dignity, which democracy exists to express and consolidate.
D. Legal standards in democracy
i Democracy is the government
of the people by the people. Its basic principles are the rule of
law and the separation of powers. Under a democratic system the
rule of law governs the functioning of the government and administration,
and confers on judges the power to verify whether the administration has
complied with that rule.
ii It is the responsibility of the democratic system to strike
a proper balance between effective action on the part of government
and administration, and the protection of citizens’ rights and freedoms.
In particular, the system must be capable of maintaining such a
balance between the requirements of the general interest of the
community and those of the protection of every individual’s fundamental
rights as set forth in the European Convention on Human Rights.
This entails the respect of minority rights by the majority. Besides
the protection of civil and political rights, care should be taken
to ensure that citizens have the full benefit of their fundamental
economic, social and cultural rights. An open-minded approach should
also be adopted to new provisions affording fuller protection of
human rights.
iii In a crisis or state of emergency, all means available
under ordinary law should be exhausted before exceptional measures
are taken. Should this extreme solution prove necessary, it should
be used only to the extent strictly required by the situation. On
no account should the "hard core" of human rights be affected. If
possible, the latter should extend beyond the sole rights specifically
protected by Article 15 of the European Convention on Human Rights;
7. Resolves to formulate proposals to the Committee
of Ministers concerning the Work Programme of the Council of Europe,
which has a clear duty under the Statute to intensify its action
to promote the above principles, in the light of its current work
on European co-operation in the 1980s and of the results of the
first Strasbourg Conference on Parliamentary Democracy (4-6 October
1983) with the participation of non-European democracies.
