European countries seek to rethink human rights on migration

All 46 member states of the Council of Europe have adopted a declaration calling for a new interpretation of the European human rights system in response to the growing pressure of migration.

The statement comes almost a year after hard-line migration from Denmark and Italy written an open letter – endorsed by around ten other countries, including Poland, Austria and Hungary – accusing judges for overstepping their mandate and limiting governments’ ability to act in migration cases.

The European Court of Human Rights is the international body responsible for the implementation of the Convention in the 46 countries of the Council of Europe under the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe is an international multilateral organization separate from the EU institutions.

The declaration – adopted in Moldova’s capital, Chisinau – warns that the world has changed since the conception of the human rights convention.

“Failure to address these challenges adequately could undermine public confidence in the Convention system,” he writes, adding that countries have an “inalienable sovereign right” to decide who enters the territories.

The statement also endorses the concept of ‘return centersThis would cause EU countries to transfer migrants with rejected asylum applications to third countries outside the EU.

While the declaration does not change the convention, it could have consequences for the court’s legal practice, human rights groups fear.

Chiara Catelli, an advocacy officer from PICUM – an NGO promoting the rights of undocumented migrants in Europe – called the statement “a direct attack” on the human rights convention.

“Governments are effectively seeking to pressure an independent tribunal to weaken long-established human rights protections in order to facilitate deportations, at the risk of deporting people where they may face torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, or where they will be denied access to life-saving medical care,” she said in a statement sent to the address. Euractiv.

EU countries celebrated the text.

“We need to create better opportunities for nations to maintain their security and deport more foreign criminals,” Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark’s acting foreign minister. posted online from Chisinau, adding that the statement is proof that conventions can be challenged.

“We need to be able to talk about (immigration) clearly, without taboos and without naivety.” has written Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot. “But never at the expense of what underpins our democracies: the rule of law, the independence of the Strasbourg Court and the universality of human rights.”

Nicoletta Ionta contributed to this report

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