Speech of Giovanni Di Stasi, President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, on the occasion of the new Commissioner for Human Rights assuming his duties (Strasbourg, 3 April)

Mr Chairman,
Distinguished Commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles,
Distinguished Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

In May 1999, our Organisation, the Council of Europe, celebrated its 50^th anniversary. It was a good occasion to reflect upon its future, the future of the Organisation often referred to in the media as the “human rights watchdog of Europe”. It was clear to everyone that the accession of new members to the Council of Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain created new challenges in monitoring the human rights situation in the Organisation’s member states, and pressing them to improve it.

That month, in 1999, meeting in Budapest under the Hungarian Chairmanship – the first eastern European country which joined the Council of Europe – the Committee of Ministers took a ground-breaking decision to establish the Office of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights – a person who would be actively following and monitoring the human rights situation on our continent. In June 1999, the Parliamentary Assembly elected Mr Alvaro Gil-Robles as the first Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights. He took up his duties on 1 September 1999.

The Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities has been supporting the institution of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights from the very outset when the proposal was made. We in the Congress strongly believe that the protection of human rights is the task for all levels of government, including national, regional and local, and we have always seen the Office of the Commissioner, and the Commissioner himself, as a partner in reinforcing local and regional democracy, and a partner in protecting human rights at all levels of government in Europe. In fact, it can be said that regional and local authorities are in the first line of defence of human rights of the citizens, as they operate at the level closest to them and because human rights violations are happening in regions, cities and towns – the places where our citizens live and work.

The Congress has established excellent working relations with the outgoing Commissioner, Mr Alvaro Gil-Robles, and followed closely his activities. The Commissioner or his representatives participated in many meetings of the Congress, and there was an active exchange of views between Congress members and the Commissioner’s Office, and the Commissioner himself, concerning in particular the protection of human rights at local and regional level; the latest intervention by Mr Alvaro Gil-Robles was at the spring session of the Congress in March this year.
The Congress particularly benefited from the recommendations of the outgoing Commissioner to prepare the report on non-citizens in Latvia, following the Commissioner’s report on the issue, and we hope to continue cooperation with the new Commissioner on a larger subject of participation of foreign residents in political life at local and regional level, on the basis of the Council of Europe Convention on the subject.

Another important field of cooperation between the Congress and the Commissioner were the issues relating to human rights and local administration, which culminated in a conference, co-organised by the Congress and the Commissioner’s Office, in Barcelona on 5 and 6 July 2004.

We all know that almost everywhere in Europe public powers are being decentralised. This process is reinforcing democracy while giving more responsibilities to territorial authorities. Many competences including territorial management, environment, housing, health care, education are shifting from the central to the regional and local level.

As a consequence of this change, good territorial governance and the respect of citizens’ rights are strongly linked to each other.

Ombudsmen acting at territorial level in many European countries underline in their reports those rights are violated more frequently but it is up to the mayors and governors to create the conditions for reducing those violations.

The Congress is sure that the new Commissioner, Mr Thomas Hammarberg, will continue with the same vigour the work that the outgoing Commissioner has started, and the Congress looks forward to continuing its cooperation with the Commissioner’s Office, in particularly in the field of the protection of human rights at local and regional level and the development of a network of local and regional ombudsmen for human rights – the initiative which was actively supported by Mr Alvaro Gil-Robles, for which we thank him, and which took root in several countries, including Russia which will assume the next Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers.

In fact, already in 1999 the Congress adopted the guidelines for the functioning of the institutions of regional and local ombudsmen, which served as the legal basis for a round table co-organised with the Commissioner in Barcelona in July 2004.

On behalf of the Congress, and in my capacity as its President, I would like to express our deep gratitude to the outgoing Commissioner, Mr Alvaro Gil-Robles, for his work. He was a genuine trail-blazer for Europe in this field, and his activities have been duly acknowledged and appreciated not only by national governments but also by regional and local authorities of our member states. Today, we look forward to continuing the cooperation which the Congress has established with the Commissioner’s Office, with the new Commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg, in protecting human rights at local and regional level. We wish the new Commissioner every success in his work.