Rick Lawson examines the effects of enlargement of the European family of nations and points out that the European Court of Human Rights simply uses its own case law without any hesitation, although with regard to the political situation in the new member states it showed willingness to make special concessions in certain cases. The author considers the dilemmas, saying that although it is indeed very welcome that the European Convention on Human Rights effects now 700 million people, but using strict measures can lead to conflicts, while setting the standards down for the new member states can lead to a loss of reputation, finally, a loss of legitimacy.
Gabriel Andreescu, chairman of the Romanian Helsinki Committee analyses in his study the state of human rights in Romania and expresses that Romania's joining to the Council of Europe undoubtedly strongly effected the state administration system. However, many of the obligations assumed by Romania in 1993 are still unfulfilled, such as the cessation of the discrimination of homosexuals, the right to property, the settlement of the issue of press offence and stabilising a real rule of law. The author thinks that Romania's integration as a full member had a benign effect because it contributed to the legitimisation of those players of politics and of civil society who fought for introducing the democratic norms of the Council of Europe.
Arne Mavcsics analyses the Convention's effect on the Slovenian constitutional court. He asserts that Slovenia entirely follows the intentions of the creators of the Convention relating to freedom and the rule of law. Without regard to what the legal status of the Convention in the Slovenian domestic legal system has, the constitutional court's and the whole judicial system's duty obviously is to secure the harmony of their decisions with the Convention. The provisions of the Convention amend and develop the constitutional provisions.
In her writing about expanding the anti-discrimination clause in the European Convention on Human Rights Krisztina Kovács thinks that the 12th protocol is a promising completion of Article 14 of the Convention. It creates a new right that can be independently enforced, prohibits discrimination in the whole of the national legal systems. It provides an opportunity to make positive measures, state measurements helping the needy. Of course, the success will greatly depend on how the court will interpret, apply and enforce the new regulation, considering also the speed and efficiency of the legal remedy.
András Baka, the Hungarian member of the court of Strasbourg utters in the conversation that the new permanent court operating since 1. Nov. 1998 has been significantly more efficient than the previous mechanism that consisted from the court and the commission. He calls attention to the fact, however, that if the court does not obtain additional financial sources so as to develop its functioning - for example, employing lawyers - then soon they will be in the same state as before the reform. The judge asserts that the joining of the new member states did not change basically the nature of the cases but that the Eastern-European states file relatively many cases burdened with basic mistake. He is against the socalled activist behaviour in stating and observing the facts because according his opinion that is the duty and possibility of the local authorities. Regarding the future of the court he estimates that after a few years of experience a modification of the Convention will certainly be necessary, but Strasbourg cannot become a body suppressing, instructing the national legal systems, instead it shall retain its special role as a final resource, interfering only in exceptional cases.
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In this volume we requested three well-known experts, Gábor Kardos, Pál Sonnevend and András Grád to answer the following questions: how do you evaluate the significance of the Convention? How did it practically contribute to the protection of fundamental rights? What is your opinion about efficiency of the Convention and the practice of the Strasbourg institutions? What is your opinion on the practice of the court and the commission in the past 5-10 years, when the number of the joining Central and Eastern European states has extensively increased?
We publish the EU recommendation on fighting discrimination, and the speech of Lord Anthony Lester of Herne Hill made in June this year in the House of Lords. The author emphasises that these recommendations stabilise everybody's rights within the EU to find effective legal remedy against discrimination. Despite of the fact that the commission made critics and reservations for some parts of the recommendations - with which he does not agree all - it is encouraging that the commission as a body believes that law has to guarantee the principle of equality. Lord Lester hopes that the government will be of the same opinion and will introduce reforms to eliminate the serious troubles caused by the fragmented, imperfect, inconsequent and poorly enforced rules on anti-discrimination.
Gábor Halmai in his writing adds critical commentaries to the latest decision of the Hungarian Constitutional Court on the absence of a special anti-discrimination law.
Mónika Weller wrote about the European Charter on Human Rights. She presents the process which resulted in the Amsterdam treaty making respect for human rights be a condition of EU membership and beyond this declaring that the massive and serious infringement of human rights can result in suspension of membership rights. The Charter of Fundamental Rights shall contain - according to the instructions - besides fundamental rights those rights, too, that can be attached only to community citizens. The detailed presentation of the Charter ends with a thought of the author: if it does not remain on the level of political declarations but becomes endowed with legally binding force, then with its establishment a "Europe of Civilians" may get closer.
More documents are published in this column, among others the Hungary-related decision of the Strasbourg court, the text of the 12th protocoll and the summary of the last decisions of the Constitutional Court affecting fundamental rights. Tamás Bán selected and commented the most important Roma-related cases from the case law of the Strasbourg court and we publish the report of the European Roma Rigths Center on the anti-romani instructions in Italy.
The first writing of the column relates to the main topic of this volume: the efficiency of the Convention and of the Strasbourg court. Lilla Farkas, colleague of NEKI summarises their experiences in the cases at the European Court of Human Rights. The other peace introduces the Foundation for Teaching Peace and Human Rights, presenting the situation of teaching human rights in Hungary and the difficulty of this task. ■
Visszaugrás
