The head of the Council of Europe has questioned whether signatory nations ‘will still be worthy’ of the European Convention on Human Rights in future years. Alain Berset, Secretary of the 46-member human rights body, was speaking at a ceremony in Rome last night to mark the 75th anniversary of the ECHR.
Berset acknowledged that the ECHR and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg were sometimes the ‘subject of debate’, arguing that was a feature of democracy. But the execution of the court’s judgments is a shared responsibility, Berset said. ‘It is a duty, to restore trust in justice and the rule of law.’
Berset recalled how he was once asked by a BBC journalist whether the ECHR would still exist in 75 years times, to which he replied: ‘We should actually be asking ourselves whether we will still be worthy of it. The European Convention on Human Rights is one of those rare texts that does not say what the world is — but what it could become. In the face of the upheavals of our times, we must keep it alive and strong. It is the guarantor of the balance between freedom and security.’
He said ongoing dialogue with signatory states was vital to the proper functioning of the system, as was upholding the independence and impartiality of the Strasbourg court ’in its decisions in the face of threats to justice, in the face of political excesses, and even in war’.
‘There’s no need to remind you of the court’s role regarding Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine’, Berset said.
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