Ministers' Deputies
CM Documents



678 Meeting, 8-9 September 1999
4 Human Rights

4.1 European Commission against racism
and intolerance (ECRI)
Abridged report of the 19^th meeting (Strasbourg, 15-18 June 1999)

CM(99)107 30 July 1999

1. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) held its 19^th meeting in Strasbourg (Human Rights Building) from 15 to 18 June 1999, with Mr Nikos FRANGAKIS (Greece) in the Chair.

2. The list of participants is contained in Appendix I. The agenda, as adopted, appears in Appendix II.

3. This abridged report contains a list of the items discussed and decisions taken at the meeting.

It was agreed to add a new item to the draft agenda prepared for the meeting, to concern events related to the crisis in Kosovo and ECRI’s contribution to the Stability Programme for South-East Europe.

5. The Secretariat provided ECRI with information on recent developments within the Council of Europe of relevance to its work.

6. On the basis of the report on the meeting of the Working Group of CBC Rapporteurs, held on 21 May 1999 (cf. CRI (99) 33), ECRI held an informative exchange of views on the implementation of the second stage of its country-by-country approach.

7. ECRI examined the preliminary draft reports on Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Switzerland, and held an in-depth exchange of views on each of these texts.

8. In accordance with the country-by-country procedure, the above-mentioned five draft texts, as prepared at the present meeting, would be transmitted by the Chair of ECRI to the Permanent Representatives of the member States concerned for a process of confidential dialogue with the authorities of the countries in question. Since this dialogue would be channelled through the intermediary of the national liaison officers based in the different countries, ECRI’s Secretariat would also forward a copy of the draft report directly to the national liaison officers concerned.

9. ECRI examined the country-by-country texts that had been the subject of a dialogue with the relevant national liaison officers and which were now submitted to ECRI for final adoption.

10. ECRI adopted the final reports on Albania, Croatia, Cyprus, Moldova and Turkey. These texts are reproduced in Addendum I to this abridged meeting report. When adopting the final report on Albania, ECRI decided to add, at the beginning of the report, a boxed paragraph stressing that the report had been prepared by ECRI during 1998 and finalised at the end of November 1998, and did not therefore cover the recent dramatic events related to the crisis in Kosovo and the implications of these events in Albania. ECRI also decided to adjust the timetable of the second stage of its country-by-country work, in order to produce a second report on Albania in the course of the year 2000.

11. In accordance with the country-by-country procedure, as agreed by the Ministers' Deputies at their 598th meeting (1-3 July 1997), the above-mentioned reports will be transmitted by ECRI to the governments of the member States in question through the intermediary of the Committee of Ministers. These reports will be made public two months after their transmission to these governments, unless the latter are expressly against making these texts public.

12. ECRI took note of the contacts established by the Secretariat with the European Journalism Centre (Maastricht) in order to engage a consultant to collect examples of "good practices" in the field of combating racism and intolerance in the media.

13. ECRI was informed of the results of the meeting of its Working Group on combating intolerance and discrimination against Muslims, held on 28 May 1999 (cf. CRI (99) 36), and held an in-depth discussion on the subject. The Working Group was instructed to continue its work, having regard to the guidelines provided by ECRI at this plenary meeting, and to submit a draft general policy recommendation on this question for discussion at ECRI’s next plenary meeting (7-10 December 1999).

14. ECRI held an exchange of views with Mr Bertil COTTIER, Deputy Director of the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law (Lausanne), on the research that the Institute would carry out for ECRI in a consultative capacity on existing national legislation aimed at establishing the criminal responsibility of parties on the Internet as regards racist crimes and on pertinent case law.

15. ECRI noted that the research would concentrate firstly on the legal problems that have arisen and also on the solutions adopted, based on a selection of a number of representative member States for which this question is currently relevant. Information will be gathered on areas such as the case law of courts of first instance, codes of conduct, contracts between service providers and the websites they host, etc.

16. The research carried out by the Institute would be finalised towards spring 2000, and monitoring of its execution would be ensured by ECRI's Working Group on the Internet. Particular care should be taken to limit the research to ECRI's particular area of interest, namely the dissemination of racist messages, and to avoid any overlap with work already carried out in this area within the Council of Europe or other international organisations.

17. In parallel with this research, the working group would also draw up an exhaustive list of anti-racist sites on the Internet, with a view to disseminating this list to specialised bodies. Finally, it would prepare proposals aimed at supporting and developing the ECRI website and would ensure the follow-up of these proposals in collaboration with the Secretariat.

Item 10: Programme of co-operation with NGOS and with specialised bodies

18. ECRI agreed that the Secretariat should organise, in collaboration with the Chair of the working group on specialised bodies, a meeting of existing specialised bodies. The aim of this meeting would be to examine with the latter what contribution they might make to regional meetings organised with a view to assisting in the creation or strengthening of specialised bodies at national level to combat racism and intolerance.

19. ECRI was informed about the conclusions of the joint meeting between ECRI's Bureau and the Executive Bureau of the Monitoring Centre, which was held on 3 June 1999 (cf. CRI-EMCRX (99) 1). After examining the various proposals for practical co-operation that emerged from the joint meeting, ECRI instructed its Bureau and Secretariat to implement these proposals and to move forward in co-operating with the Monitoring Centre in the different areas determined by the joint meeting of the two Bureaux.

20. ECRI took note of the results of the seminar on religion and the integration of immigrants organised by the CDMG on 24-26 November 1998. ECRI welcomed the work carried out by the CDMG on the subject and indicated that it wished to be kept informed of the development of this work. It was decided, in order to avoid duplication of effort, that ECRI itself would not undertake any additional activities on this issue within its own programme of activities.

21. ECRI was informed of the results of the ad hoc meeting of governmental experts held on 22-24 February 1999 (cf. PREP-EUROCONF (99) 6), and of subsequent developments concerning the holding of the European Conference against Racism, foreseen for autumn 2000.

22. ECRI stressed its desire to prepare a substantial contribution to the work of this Conference. It set up a resource group with responsibility for closely following developments related to the preparation of the Conference and for reflecting on how ECRI could contribute. The group would be composed of Mrs Martine VALDES-BOULOUQUE (France), Mr Nikos FRANGAKIS (Greece), Mr Roger LINSTER (Luxembourg), Mr Godwin MUSCAT-AZZOPARDI (Malta), Mr Andrzej SICINSKI (Poland) and Mrs Alenka PUHAR (Slovenia). ECRI would be represented by two members of this group at the meetings of the technical working group responsible for the preparation of the Conference.

23. ECRI was informed of the results of the 25^th meeting of the DH-DEV (18-21 May 1999) concerning the continuation of work on the drafting of an Additional Protocol to the European Convention of Human Rights widening, in a general fashion, the scope of Article 14.

24. ECRI prepared the timetable for its forthcoming meetings. This appears in Appendix III of this abridged meeting report

25. This being the first plenary meeting held by ECRI since the events related to the crisis in Kosovo, ECRI was unanimous in considering that it should not remain silent on this subject. ECRI adopted a Declaration and asked its Secretariat to disseminate this widely. The text of the Declaration is contained in Appendix IV to this abridged meeting report.

Professeur Arben PUTO, Président, Helsinki Committee

Professor Stefan KARNER, Ludwig Boltzmann Institut für Kriegsfolgen-Forschung

Belgique / Belgium

(Excusé/Apologised)

Monsieur Johan LEMAN, Directeur du Centre pour l’Egalité des Chances et la Lutte contre le Racisme

Monsieur François SANT'ANGELO, collaborateur au Centre pour l'Egalité des Chances et la Lutte contre le Racisme

Monsieur Luben KOULICHEV, Assemblée Nationale de la République de Bulgarie

Croatie / Croatia

Ms Maja SERSIC, Assistant Professor, International Law Department at the Faculty of Laws of the Zagreb University

Ms Maro CLERIDES-TSIAPPAS, Counsel for the Republic of Cyprus, Office of the Attorney General of the Republic of Cyprus

République Tchèque / Czech Republic

Mr Richard KRPAC, Deputy Director, Human Rights Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Danemark / Denmark

Professor Gün KUT, Bogaziçi University, Faculty of Political Science

Ukraine

Agenda

• 20^th plenary meeting: 7-10 December 1999

6 December 1999

• CBC 1: 9 July 1999

• CBC 2: 28 June 1999

• CBC 9: 12 July 1999

• CBC 10: 19 July 1999

• October 1999 (one day)

• November 1999 (one day)

• November 1999 (one day)

ECRI’s 19^th plenary meeting is taking place at a time when current events in Europe provide a tragic illustration of the consequences that a rise in racism and intolerance may have for all the populations of a region, regardless of their national or ethnic origin or religious beliefs.

ECRI is unanimous in expressing its profound distress at the recent dramatic events related to the Kosovo crisis.

ECRI deplores the fact that hundreds of thousands of Kosovars have been forced to leave their homes. It firmly condemns any form of ethnic cleansing and expects that those responsible will be brought before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. ECRI also urges all countries and relevant international organisations to assist in the return of refugees to their homes, the reconstruction of the countries most affected by the crisis and the re-establishment of democratic security in the region.

ECRI wishes to contribute, within its own field of competence, to the wider efforts being carried out by the Council of Europe in the region, especially in the context of the latter’s participation in the Stability Programme for South-East Europe. ECRI has instructed its Bureau to prepare concrete proposals in this respect, such as adjusting the timetable for ECRI’s country-by-country work; taking into account, in ECRI’s reports on the countries concerned, the specific needs, within ECRI’s sphere of competence, arising from the crisis situation with which the region is faced ; the strengthening of national specialised bodies to combat racism and intolerance, etc.

ECRI expresses its readiness to take part in any appropriate activities for which its contribution is requested, with the aim of re-establishing a climate of confidence and promoting the belief that "living together, in a multicultural and multiethnic society, is both possible and enriching".