Teymi evrópskra lögfræðinga á sviði jafnréttis og vinnuréttar

Teymi evrópskra lögfræðinga á sviði jafnréttis og vinnuréttar

Susanne Burri, Christopher McCrudden, Herdís Þorgeirsdóttir og Maria do Rosário Palma RamalhoÁrlegur fundur evrópskra lögfræðinga sem starfa saman í teymi á sviði jafnréttis og vinnuréttar var haldinn í Brussel 30. nóvember. Þetta teymi hefur starfað frá því í upphafi 9. áratugar fyrir framkvæmdastjórn Evrópusambandsins. Dr. Herdís Þorgeirsdóttir hefur starfað með teyminu frá 2003. Lögfræðingarnir 35 eru frá ríkjum Evrópusambandsins og ríkjum sem eiga aðild a EES samningum og nokkrum ríkjum utan þessara sambanda. Teymið sendir frá sér tímarit um jafnréttismál auk þess sem það stendur að skýrslum á hinunm ýmsum sem jafnréttislöggjöf tekur til að skýrslum sérfræðinganna um framkvæmd jafnréttislöggjafar í eigin heimaríki.

 

 

Októberfundur Feneyjanefndar

Októberfundur Feneyjanefndar

Forseti og varaforseti Feneyjanefndar.

Venice, Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista – the Venice Commission has published several opinions concerning ten states that were adopted and endorsed at is latest plenary session last week.

– Armenia: the joint Opinion of the Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR on the draft amendments to the Electoral Code and related legislation ;

– Bulgaria: the Opinion on the draft amendments to the Constitution;

– Chile: the Opinion on the 2023 Process of Constitutional Reform;

– Georgia: the follow-up Opinion to previous opinions on the amendments to the Organic Law on Common Courts;

– Kyrgyzstan:
• the Opinion on the draft law on the media of Kyrgyzstan;
• the Opinion on the draft Constitutional Law on the Ombudsman of Kyrgyzstan;

– Republic of Moldova:
• the follow-up Opinion to the opinion on the draft law of the Republic of Moldova on the Intelligence and Security Service, as well as on the draft law on counterintelligence and external intelligence activity;
• the joint Opinion of the Venice Commission and the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law (DGI) of the Council of Europe on the draft law on the anti-corruption judicial system and on amending some normative acts of the Republic of Moldova;
• the joint follow-up Opinion to the joint opinion on the draft Law on the external assessment of Judges and Prosecutors of the Republic of Moldova;
• the joint Opinion of the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR on amendments to the Electoral Code of the Republic of Moldova and other related laws concerning ineligibility of persons connected to political parties declared unconstitutional;

– Montenegro: the Opinion on the draft law on the Government of Montenegro;

– The Netherlands: the joint Opinion of the Venice Commission and the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law (DGI) of the Council of Europe on the legal safeguards of the independence of the judiciary from the executive power ;

– Poland: the urgent Opinion on the Law of Poland on the State Commission to investigate Russian Influence on Internal Security in the Republic of Poland between 2007 and 2022 and on the draft law amending that Law (previously issued on 26 July 2023 and endorsed by the Venice Commission’s plenary session);

– Ukraine:
• the joint Opinion of the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR on the draft law amending certain legislative acts of Ukraine which restrict the participation in the state power of persons associated with political parties whose activities are prohibited by law;
• the Opinion on the draft law on Amendments to Article 51 of the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada on political liability of Members of Parliament associated with political parties whose activities have been suspended;
• the joint follow-up Opinion of the Venice Commission and the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law (DGI) of the Council of Europe to the joint Opinion on the draft amendments to the Law “On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges” and Certain Laws on the Activities of the Supreme Court and Judicial Authorities;
• the urgent follow-up opinion to the Opinions on the Law on “Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on improving the procedure for the selection of candidates for the position of judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on a Competitive Basis” (previously issued on 25 September 2023 and endorsed by the Venice Commission’s plenary session).
• the follow-up Opinion to the opinion on the law of Ukraine on national minorities.

The next Plenary Session will take place on 15-16 December 2023 in Venice.

Fyrirhuguð fjölmiðlalög í Kyrgyzstan

Fyrirhuguð fjölmiðlalög í Kyrgyzstan

Fulltrúar Feneyjanefndar áttu fundi með stjórnvöldum í Bishkek, höfuðborg Kyrgyzstan dagana 11. til 12. september vegna álits sem um fyrirhugup fjölmiðlalög í landinu. Álitið verður kynnt á aðalfundi nefndarinnar í byrjun október. Myndin er tekin í dómsmálaráðuneytinu í Bishek en það var dómsmálaráðherra Kyrgyzstan sem fór þess á leit við Feneyjanefnd að hún tæki frumvarpið til skoðunar.

Málþing um réttarríki

Málþing um réttarríki

Svíar sem hafa verið í forsæti fyrir Ráði Evrópuráðsins – the Council of the European Union – sl. hálft ár luku því hlutverki með stóru málþingi í Stokkhólmi hinn 21. og 22. júní. Herdís Þorgeirsdóttir var með framsögu af hálfu Feneyjanefndar Evrópuráðsins en þemað var lýðræðisleg gildi og réttarríkið. Aðrir sem töluðu voru m.a.forseti Evrópudómsstólsins og varaforseti framkvæmdastjórnar Evrópusambandsins; auk talsmann evrópskra stofnana, atvinnulífs og akademíu. Herdís fjallaði sérstaklega um álit Feneyjanefndar vegna breytinga á stjórnarskrá Möltu sem samþykkt var 2018. Álitið er mikilvægt að því leyti að tengir saman svo margt sem fer aflaga í stjórnskipun ríkja og verður spillingu og ofbeldi að bráð – en álit þetta er m.a. tilkomið vegna þeirrar alþjóðlegu athygli sem morðið á blaðakonunni Daphne Caruana Galizia í október 2017. Hún hafði sem blaðamaður og bloggari fjallað mikið og oft háðuglega um spillingu í forystu ríkisins, tengsl ráðamanna við spillt fjármálaöfl og því þótti einhverjum tími til kominn að útiloka frekari gagnrýni frá henni. Sprengju var komið fyrir í bíl hennar og hún lét lífið þegar bíllinn sprakk í loft upp eftir að hún ræsti hann. Rannsókn á morðinu gekk treglega fyrir sig. Stjórnvöld á Möltu sættu gagnrýni fyrir klíkuskap, spillt dómskerfi, lögregla og saksóknara, samkrull allra greina ríkisvaldsins, veikburða löggjafasamkundu, samþjöppun á valdi, frændhygli og tengsl ráðherra við peningaþvætti og önnur spillingarmál.

Í framhaldi af þessu má geta þess að frá 2014 hafa 28 blaðamenn verið myrtir á evrópskri grundu. Flestir vegna skrifa sinna um spillingu. Í frægu dómsmáli fyrir Mannréttindadómstól Evrópu í kjölfar morðs á blaðakonunni Anna Politskoya í  Moskvu kvað dómstóllinn upp úr skyldu stjórnvalda aðildarríkja Evrópuráðsins (sem Rússland var þá) að rannsaka morð á blaðamönnum í tenglsum við skrif þeirra sbr. 1., 2., og 10. grein Mannréttindasáttmála Evrópu.

 

 “Reality check on the rule of law and democratic values”

The Rule of Law is mentioned in the Preamble to the Statute of the Council of Europe as one of the three “principles which form the basis of all genuine democracy”, together with individual freedom and political liberty.

The Rule of Law means that everyone has the right to be treated by all decision-makers with dignity, equality and rationality and in accordance with the laws, and to have the opportunity to challenge decisions before independent and impartial courts through fair procedures.

Impartiality of the judiciary must be ensured in practice as well as in the law. The classical formula, as expressed for example by the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights, is that “justice must not only be done, it must also be seen to be done”

One of the benchmarks that the VC uses to assess the impartiality is asking:

Are there specific constitutional and legal rules providing for the impartiality of the judiciary?

  1. What is the public’s perception of the impartiality of the judiciary and of individual judges?
  2. Is there corruption in the judiciary? Are specific measures in place against corruption in the judiciary (e.g. a declaration of assets)? What is the public’s perception on this issue?

As we are discussing a reality check on the rule of law and democratic values – I would like to mention an interesting opinion of the VC which was requested in 2018 by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe – in the wake of a report on the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in October 2017 and the rule of law in Malta – ensuring that the whole truth emerges – a case which attracted attention all over Europe.

This opinion elucidates the interrelationship between the rule of law, democracy, separation of powers, right to life, journalistic freedoms, corruption and abuse of powers.

Investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated on 16 October 2017. As a journalist and  blogger active for over 30 years, she had reported on politics in Malta, focusing on government corruption, nepotism,  and allegations of money laundering – probably knowing that she was putting herself in danger in such an environment – although not foreseeing that someone would place a bomb in her car which exploded, killing her instantly  in October 2017.

The alleged ineffectiveness of the investigation to find any persons who ordered this assassination and the alleged culture of impunity had been highly criticised.

The economy in Malta was thriving but also at the time perceived as fostering widespread corruption – the Panama Papers scandal had exposed more than 214,000 tax havens involving high-profile people, government officials, and entities from 200 different nations -revealing corruption affecting all Member States of the Council of Europe. Corruption according to reports at the time was costing the economy of EU countries more than 120 billion Euros per year, with some estimates going up to 990 billion Euros.

The even higher cost is the one of ruined lives, the erosion of the rule of law and decay of democracy. We know now that in the last ten years 28 journalists who had been investigating corruption have been brutally  killed on European soil. Journalists have special duties; more duties than ordinary citizens and they need special protection

The scope of the VC examination was confined to the constitutional arrangements in Malta as the Commission neither had the mandate nor the required competences to examine the effectiveness of a particular criminal investigation or the veracity of the allegations by the murdered journalist of individual cases of corruption and money-laundering.  The Venice Commission insisted in this case on the positive obligations stemming from Article 1 of the European Convention, combined with Articles 2 (right to life) and 10 (freedom of expression) of the ECHR — was of utmost importance to examine a possible connection of the assassination of a journalist to the investigative of her work – and that perpetrators of such offences do not enjoy impunity

Preventive and repressive measures are required to fight corruption – the Minister of Justice in Malta had pointed to various law reforms as a whistleblower act; laws on political party financing and various other laws tackling defamation, corruption, nepotism etc.

The VC emphasized that as with any reform, it is obvious that not only the texts matter, but also their implementation in good faith.

The Opinion criticised the double role of the Attorney General as advisor of the Government and as prosecutor. The part-time Parliament was found to be too weak to exercise sufficient control over the executive branch. The Prime Minister’s wide powers of appointment make this institution too powerful, creating a serious risk for the rule of law. The Prime Minister’s influence on judicial appointments resulted in the absence of crucial checks and balances. This problem was reinforced by the weakness of civil society and independent media.

The VC emphasized that even when it is stressful for authorities endure criticism they have the duty to ensure that the media can adhere to its public watchdog role – and that robust political debate can thrive in civil society.

The list of recommendations in this opinion concerning the judiciary, the public prosecutions, the parliament, president and citizen involvement in making constitutional amendments – and the international obligation of the government to ensure the media and journalists could do their duty as the public watchdog to hold authorities accountable – elucidate how complex the fabric underlying the effective rule of law, democracy and human rights is.