Ministers' Deputies
CM Documents



692 Meeting, 15 [-16] December 1999
10 Legal Questions

10.1 Ad Hoc Committee of Experts on the legal aspects of territorial Asylum, Refugees and Stateless Persons (CAHAR)

CM(99)163 19 November 1999

1. The Ad hoc Committee of Experts on the Legal Aspects of Territorial Asylum, Refugees and Stateless Persons (CAHAR) held its 48th meeting on 13-15 October 1999 in Strasbourg. The list of participants and the agenda appear in Appendices I and II, respectively.

2. The CAHAR adopted a draft Recommendation on family reunion for refugees and other persons in need of international protection and its explanatory memorandum, for examination and adoption by the Committee of Ministers (see Addendum to CM(99)163).

3. The Committee completed a first reading of the draft recommendation on temporary protection and referred the text with its comments to the CAHAR-TP and instructed it to continue its work under the terms of reference received from the Committee of Ministers. The discussion also benefited from the Colloquy on the legal protection of persons in case of massive and sudden influx, held in Strasbourg on 6-7 September 1999, which was hosted by the CAHAR.

4. The Committee instructed its Chairman to address a formal request for consultation to three committees: the Steering Committee for Equality Between Women and Men (CDEG), the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography (CDMG) and the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) concerning the situation of refugee women in Europe on the basis of Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1374 (1998) and a decision of the Committee of Ministers. An information note prepared by the Secretariat and a first compilation of responses received to the questionnaire on this subject were distributed.

5. The CAHAR agreed that on developments in domestic law and policies of member States concerning asylum, refugees, stateless persons and persons under temporary protection those delegations which had specific relevant changes to report would send written information to the Secretariat by 15 November 1999. These contributions will be distributed to all participants.

6. An information document on decisions by the Committee of Ministers and other activities within the Council of Europe, which are of interest to the CAHAR, was distributed by the Secretariat. The Committee was informed about international developments relevant to the work of the CAHAR by respective representatives of countries currently holding the presidency of these fora and by the representative of the UNHCR.

7. The Committee discussed its future work, based on the proposal formulated by the three co-ordinators of the informal review groups. The Committee decided to keep temporary protection and the situation of refugee women in Europe on the agenda with a view to completing these exercises, if possible, during next year. It decided to add to its list of priority items the detention of asylum seekers and other measures restricting their freedom of movement as well as on subsidiary protection.

8. The CAHAR instructed the Bureau to continue its review work, preferably with the involvement of an independent consultant, if appropriate financing could be identified. The CAHAR underlined the importance of the urgent creation of a web-site of the Committee to facilitate the implementation of its active information policy and requested the Committee of Ministers to endorse the translation by national authorities into national languages of member and observer States the existing treaties and intergovernmental recommendations of the Council of Europe in the field of competence of the Committee. The Bureau, for the same reasons, was requested to submit at the 49^th meeting a draft questionnaire to governments of member States on the implementation of already agreed Council of Europe provisions in the field of competence of the Committee.

9. The CAHAR took note of the proposal by the representative of the Russian Federation, supported by Sweden and the UNHCR, to explore the possibilities of CAHAR’s active contribution to the follow-up process of the "Regional Conference to address the problems of refugees, displaced persons, other forms of involuntary displacement and returnees in the countries of Commonwealth of Independent States, and the relevant neighbouring States", depending on a formal initiative from the Steering Group of that process.

10. The Committee adopted the detailed report on its previous, 47^th, meeting, a report on the Extraordinary meeting on Kosovo, the date of the next, 49th, meeting (13-15 March 2000) and also adopted the present abridged report.

Ms Anila PREMTI, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tirana

Mr Jürgen SPRINGER, Ministry of Interior, Wien

Mlle Sophie DAUTREBANDE, Ministère de la Justice, Bruxelles

M. Charles DEHEM, Ministère de l'Intérieur, Bruxelles

Mme Svoboda GUENTCHEVA, Département "Relations internationales", Sofia

M.Dario DUDAS, Department for Migration and Aliens, Zagreb

Mrs. Božena KATANEC, Department for Migration and Aliens, Zagreb

Mr Michael RAFTOPOULOS, Legal Service of the Republic, Nicosia

Ms. Andrea BARSOVA, Human Rights Department, Praha

Ms Kirsa HANSEN, Danish Immigration Service, Copenhagen

Mr Tarmo PUNNIK, Ministry of Foreign, Tallinn

Mrs Annikki VANAMO-ALHO, Ministry of the Interior, Helsinki

M. Matthieu CLOUVEL, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Paris

Mr. Karsten KLOTH, BundesMinisterium, Berlin

Mr. Vassilios PATRONAS (Chairman), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens

Mr. Istvan DOBÓ, Office of Refugee and Migration Affairs, Budapest

M. Giovanni KOJANEC, Ministère des Affaires étrangères, Rome

Monsieur Horst SCHÄDLER, Verwaltungsgebäude, Vaduz

Mr Oskars VAIKULIS, Ministry of Interior, Riga

Mr. Vaidotas VERBA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vilnius

Mr. Anthony BARBARA, Office of the Attorney General, Valletta

Mr. Iuri CERBARI, Ministère des Affaires étrangères, Chisinau

Mr. M.J.M., NIEHOFF, Ministry of Justice, The Hague

Mrs Nina OFTEDAHL, Ministry of Justice and Police, Oslo

Ms. Magdalena KAKLEWSKA, Ministry of Interior and Administration, Warsaw

M. Jorge PORTAS, Service des Etrangers et des Frontières, Lisbonne

Mlle Lavinia ZLOTEA, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Bucarest

Mr Ilya ROGACHEV, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moscow

Mr. Igor PACOLÁK, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bratislava

Mr Uroš BUCAR, Ministry of the Interior, Ljubljana

M. José LOPEZ LOPEZ, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Madrid

Mr. Christer NORLING, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Stockholm

Mme Caroline BRÜEESCH, Département fédéral de justice et police, Berne

Mr. Blagoja STOJKOVSKI, Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia, Skopje

Mr Kaan ESENER, Représentation Permanente de la Turquie auprès du Conseil de l’Europe, Strasbourg

Mr Valentyna SUBOTENKO, Administration of the President of the Ukraine, Kyiv

Ms Hilary TARRANT, Asylum Policy Unit, Croydon

Mme Danielle LAVEAU, Direction Générale "Justice et Affaires intérieures", Bruxelles

Mme Muriel GUIN, Task Force Justice/Affaires intérieures, Bruxelles

M. Jean-Louis LABERGE, Ambassade du Canada, Paris

Mr. Mario GATTIKER, Caritas-Suisse, Lucerne

Mr. Antonio FORTIN, Division de la protection internationale, Genève

M. Salvatore LOMBARDO, Responsable du HCR au Conseil de l’Europe, Strasbourg

Mr. Nabil BENBEKHTI, Strasbourg

ANDORRE/ANDORRA

AUSTRALIE/AUSTRALIA

BOSNIE ET HERZEGOVINE/BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

ICELAND/ISLANDE

IRELAND/IRLANDE

JAPON/JAPAN

LUXEMBOURG

SAINT-MARIN/SAN MARINO

ETATS UNIS D’AMERIQUE/UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

BUDAPEST GROUP

M. Alexey KOZHEMYAKOV, Chef de la Division du Droit Public et International, Direction des Affaires Juridiques

M. Géza TESSÉNYI, Secrétaire du Comité/Secretary of the Committee

Mme Karla CHARRETON, Division du Droit Public et International, Direction des Affaires Juridiques

Mlle Gwenaelle FONTANA, Stagiaire, Direction des Affaires Juridiques

Mlle Monika ZACNY, Stagiaire, Direction des Affaires Juridiques

Mr William VALK

Mme Jennifer GRIFFITH

Mme Shéhérazade HOYER-BARTHEL

Mme Bettina LUDEWIG

1. Opening of the meeting

2. Adoption of the Agenda

3. Discussion on temporary protection

4. Discussion on family reunion for refugees and other persons in need of international protection

5. Discussion on refugee women

6. Future work

7. Developments in the domestic law of member States concerning asylum, refugees, stateless persons and persons under temporary protection (tour de table)

8. Decisions of the Committee of Ministers and other activities within the Council of Europe which are of interest to the CAHAR

9. International developments in the field of competence of the CAHAR

10. Other business

11. Adoption of reports