Parliaments must do more to ensure Strasbourg Court judgments are implemented | WPN World People News

Non-implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights and the judgments of the Strasbourg Court “threatens the very survival of the Convention system”, warned PACE President Anne Brasseur, opening a seminar in Madrid on the role of national parliaments in the implementation of Court judgments.

“It is our duty as elected representatives to guarantee that the Convention is applied in our country and, if it is not, that the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights are implemented without delay,” she told participants.

The President praised examples of national parliaments which had set up procedures and structures to monitor the implementation of Strasbourg Court rulings – notably in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, Romania and Poland.

She also called on parliaments to take steps to ensure that laws adopted at national level complied with the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The PACE President was speaking on the last day of an official visit to Spain, during which she also met the Presidents of the Senate and Congress of Deputies, as well as the Foreign, Home Affairs and Justice Ministers.

During her bilateral meetings, the PACE President addressed the human rights challenges of migration in the wider Mediterranean region and, in particular, the situation in Melilla and Ceuta. Stressing the need for European states to share responsibilities between them in order to deal with this challenge, the President called for greater solidarity at European level.

Referring to the situation in Ceuta and Melilla, the President stressed the need to find appropriate solutions that comply with international and European human rights standards but which are also tailored to the specific situation of these territories, in order to address the needs of those requiring international protection.

"The Council of Europe, with its expert and monitoring bodies, is here to help the Spanish authorities," stressed Anne Brasseur.

Source: Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe