Human rights support in times of crisis and beyond – Council of Europe

The Serbian translation was published in the weekend edition of the Belgrade-based daily

Danas on 4-5 April 2020 (online here).

Today, Europe is facing a challenge caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, greater than anythingseen before in recent times. Serbia, as many other European states, has entered an unprecedented state of emergency. The crisis is reshaping our public, professional and personal space already now and will have an even more profound impact on the lives of people and on the policies of states all over Europe in the future. In this trying hour, the Council of Europe, the continents largest human rights organization that the Republic of Serbia joined 17 years ago, on 3 April 2003, remains committed to supporting Serbia in addressing the current challenges, in full respect of the principles of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

Also, in these circumstances the Council of Europe must continue to pursue its mission. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is handling urgent com1plaints and adopting judgments and decisions. The monitoring bodies continue providing recommendations to member States. The Council of Europes platform on safety and protection of journalists continues to raise alarm over cases of intimidation of journalists, for their reliable, professional, ethical and independent reporting is indispensable today as never before. And we at the Council of Europes Office in Belgrade continue our activities, to the benefit of all people in Serbia. Our focus remains the rights and freedoms of those who have always needed support and protection and whose vulnerability has been only highlighted by the pandemic.

We are talking about persons deprived of liberty, disabled people, elderly residents in specialized institutions, as well as refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants who often simply dont have enough space for physical distancing to avoid the risk of the spread of the virus. The Council of Europes anti-torture committee (CPT) in its recent guidelines on treatment of imprisoned persons during the COVID-19 pandemic reminded that protective measures must never result in inhuman or degrading treatment of persons deprived of their liberty. Our Office, in the framework of its joint projects with the European Union, continues working with the Serbian authorities to promote the implementation of these and other CPT guidelines, including those on homes for the elderly and people with disabilities.

Women and children are another vulnerable group. For many of them, the home is a place of fear, not a place of safety, and the situation of lockdown has only increased the risk of domestic violence and abuse. The effects of the crisis also could harm women economically and threaten their financial independence, stressed Marija Pejinovi Buri, the Council of Europe Secretary General. Our organisation seeks to raise public awareness of this threat and promote the message of zero impunity for perpetrators. Our Office in Belgrade for example, organises judicial training, thus we support the implementation of the recommendations given in the recent monitoring report by GREVIO, a specialised body of the Council of Europe.

Another body of the Council of Europe, Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages that Serbia is party to, recently highlighted another issue: persons belonging to national minorities are at risk of not being able to get the information about the anti-COVID 19 measures in their native languages; besides, with schools shifting to online learning, their children might no longer be able to be educated in the minority language.

As for such a vulnerable minority as Roma, the ROMACTED programme of the Council of Europe and the EU has been empowering Roma as citizens, including through the establishment at local level a network of community workers who are now an integral part of the crisis mobilisation.

For children and young people, 2020 will be a formative year, and it is our duty to turn this experience into an opportunity. It is the moment to foster young peoples competences in understanding how history is shaped and how democracies face crises and defend fundamental rights and freedoms. We at the Council of Europe are ready to continue working with the education system actors and parents to further their understanding of democratic culture and conveying it to their students and children.

The current situation calls for adjusting our working methods. While most of the public events have been put on halt, several of them are taking place through electronic communication means. We are putting a special emphasis on online courses not only for lawyers and human rights practitioners under the HELP programme, but also for professionals in other fields, so that to enable as many people as possible to engage with the values and standards of the Council of Europe.

The Council of Europe and its Office in Belgrade remain a committed partner of Serbia during this crisis. We look forward to increasing our co-operation even further as we eventually come out of this pandemic. On behalf of the entire team of the Belgrade Office of the Council of Europe I wish you good health and optimism in the coming period.

View original post here:

Human rights support in times of crisis and beyond - Council of Europe