Within days of the end of Ireland’s six-month presidency of the European Union, a decision by the Council of Europe to block a monitoring mission to Hungary to investigate allegations of human rights abuses has raised serious concerns about the role of the European watchdog.
Within days of the end of Ireland’s six-month presidency of the European Union, a decision by the Council of Europe to block a monitoring mission to Hungary to investigate allegations of human rights abuses has raised serious concerns about the role of the European watchdog.
I was in Strasbourg in the Palais de l’Europe building on 25 June and witnessed the full debate and voting of the Parliamentary Assembly when it was decided to block the request to monitor Hungary, following allegations of a denial of democracy and other abuses of human rights.
This vote against the monitoring – which was carried 135 to 88, with six abstentions – has shocked many observers, and may be considered a serious turning of a blind eye to the core values and principles of the Convention of Human Rights. Indeed, if the vote had gone against Hungary, it would have been the first state of the European Union to be monitored by the Council of Europe.
The European Union, the United States and human rights groups have all accused Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of weakening the independence of the country’s courts by using his two-thirds majority in parliament and changing the constitution 12 times.
Founding principles
It has been pointed out to Hungary that when it became a member of the Council of Europe, it voluntarily agreed to uphold the functioning of democratic institutions, the protection of human rights, and respect for the rule of law.
These are some of the founding principles of the Council of Europe, launched in 1949 by Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It now covers virtually the entire continent of Europe, comprising 47 member states – far more than the European Union – and some 800 million citizens.
The European Convention of Human Rights is arguably the best-known achievement of the Council of Europe. It was opened for signature in Rome in November 1950 and came into force in September 1953, when it gave effect to a number of the rights stated in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Prime Minister Orbán denies that the changes his government has introduced in Hungary since sweeping to power in 2010 are anti-democratic. That’s a view supported by Robert Walter, British Conservative MEP and chair of the European Democratic Group in the council, who said during the debate: “The country does not fall into the monitoring category.”
As a founding member of the Council of Europe, Ireland is entitled to take the strongest line in the defence of democracy and human rights in Europe and to expect that all 47 of the council’s member states honour the principles and values of the European Convention of Human Rights.
It would be timely for Ireland to remind the rest of Europe, including Hungary and those countries that have blocked the request to send a monitoring mission there, of their voluntary pledge to respect democracy and human rights.
Michael McGowan is a former MEP and president of the development committee of the European Parliament.
