Once a year the committees of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) meet outside their official headquarters in Paris and Strasbourg. As National Council member Damien Cottier (FDP.The Liberals, NE) has been chairperson of the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights since January 2022, the committee members met on 5 and 6 September in Switzerland.
Some 60 parliamentarians from 30 Council of Europe member states discussed the findings of their sub-committee, which visited Kyiv, Bucha and Irpin at the end of June to follow up on indications of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the course of Russia’s military attack on Ukraine, and adopted the report on the matter.
The Committee also addressed issues of discrimination based on vaccine status and the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions on civil society. Furthermore, it held a public hearing with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Tim Engelhardt, and with Lars Patrick Berg, Member of the European Parliament, on secret state surveillance using spyware such as Pegasus. The Committee also exchanged views with Professor Helen Keller, former Swiss judge at the European Court of Human Rights and Professor of European and International Law at the University of Zurich, and with Simona Granata-Menghini, Secretary of the Venice Commission, on the relationship between national constitutions and the European Convention on Human Rights. Finally, the relevant sub-committee on human rights held hearings on the possibility of establishing an ad hoc criminal court to prosecute crimes committed in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The sub-committee heard from James Goldston of the Open Society Foundation and from Professor Dapo Akande of Oxford University. It also looked at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on prison inmates and exchanged views with Professor Marcelo Aebi of the University of Lausanne, Professor Hans Wolff, Vice-President of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), and Triona Lenihan from Penal Reform International.
The meeting was opened by the president of the Council of States, Thomas Hefti, who underlined the importance of the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights, noting that Switzerland will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its accession to the Council of Europe in 2023. The Swiss Parliament will mark this anniversary at a conference organised jointly with PACE on the topic of ‘Elections in times of crisis’. In addition, a discussion with the head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police, Federal Councillor Karin Keller-Sutter, focused on current developments and challenges regarding Switzerland and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
The meeting was concluded with a visit to Neuchâtel, where the Committee was welcomed by the vice-president of the Neuchâtel cantonal government, Alain Ribaux (FDP.The Liberals, NE). Mr Ribaux is the president of the Conference of Cantonal Police and Justice Directors of Western and Southern Switzerland and was an investigator at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 1994 and 1995. The Committee and Mr Ribaux exchanged views on international criminal justice mechanisms. Afterwards, the Committee listened to a lecture by Professor Nesa Zimmermann, Chair of Swiss and Comparative Constitutional Law at the University of Neuchâtel. She spoke on the Neuchâtel Colloquium, which led to the reform of the ECHR in the 1990s (Protocol No 11 to the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms), and on the current challenges the ECHR is facing as a result. The Committee then listened to a presentation by Professor Yves Sandoz, an expert on international humanitarian law, on the significance of the 18th century law professor from Neuchâtel, Emer de Vattel, considered to be one of the fathers of international law following the publication of his major work Droits des gens (law of nations).
Photo: Monika Flükiger, Parliamentary Services
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Photo: Monika Flükiger, Parliamentary Services
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Photo: Monika Flükiger, Parliamentary Services
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Photo: Monika Flükiger, Parliamentary Services
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Photo: Monika Flükiger, Parliamentary Services
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Photo: Monika Flükiger, Parliamentary Services
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Photo: Monika Flükiger, Parliamentary Services
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Photo: Monika Flükiger, Parliamentary Services
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