776th meeting – 6 December 2001

    Item 10.5

    United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the 50th Anniversary
    of the 1951 Geneva Convention
    Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1525 (2001)
    (PA REC_1525 (2001))

    Decision

    The Deputies adopted the following reply to Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1525 (2001) on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the fiftieth anniversary of the Geneva Convention:

    "The Committee of Ministers has carefully examined Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1525 (2001) and agrees with the Assembly regarding both the importance of the Geneva Convention and the significance of its 50th anniversary.

    The Committee of Ministers solemnly confirms its full commitment to the spirit and provisions of the Geneva Convention and its 1967 Protocol and considers them to be fundamental and vital international legal instruments which continue to provide the basis for international protection of asylum seekers and refugees.

    Since its very beginning, the Council of Europe steadily contributed to the consolidation of international protection of asylum seekers and refugees in permanent and effective co-operation with the UNHCR.

    The Parliamentary Assembly played a particularly active role in this process, and this throughout the numerous crises in this field, by the adoption of resolutions and recommendations and the initiating of many inter-governmental activities, in particular through the Ad hoc Committee of experts on the Legal Aspects of Territorial Asylum, Refugees and Stateless Persons (CAHAR). These intergovernmental activities have always benefited from the active participation of the UNHCR. Representatives of the European Union were also involved on a permanent basis in those discussions.

    In all the previous efforts mentioned above, the Committee of Ministers has been guided by the fact that the protection of refugees is part of the protection of human rights as a whole. The principles of the European Convention on Human Rights are relevant to this protection and underlie all appropriate recommendations prepared by intergovernmental committees and adopted by the Committee (see selected list attached) aiming to promote their further implementation in national legislation and regulations on refugees and asylum seekers.

    The Committee of Ministers also shares the Assembly’s concern that no room should be given to the misuse of asylum issues in public life; this would risk increasing discrimination, racism and xenophobia which could lead to extensively restrictive interpretations of the principles set out in the Geneva Convention, on both national and international levels.

    In this context, the Committee of Ministers draws the Assembly’s attention to its reply to Recommendation 1438 (2000) on the threat posed to democracy by extremist parties and movements in Europe, as well as to the Declaration adopted by the European Ministers at the European preparatory Conference (“All different, All equal: from theory to practice”) organised by the Council of Europe in October 2000 for the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and associated Intolerance.

    The Committee of Ministers also shares the Assembly’s concern with regard to measures which imply the risk of weakening the protection afforded by the Geneva Convention and in this regard will continue, as it always has, to support the Global Consultation process initiated by the UNHCR which allows in-depth discussion and evaluation of the relevance of the Geneva Convention’s provisions to the present day, with a view to increasing its effectiveness.

    In this context, the Committee of Ministers is of the opinion that:

    - member states which are not yet parties to the Geneva Convention should accede to it as well as to its 1967 Protocol;

    - member states which have formulated reservations to these instruments are urged to reconsider them;

    - states parties to the Convention should appoint high-level delegations to attend the formal meeting of states parties to the 1951 Convention to be held in Geneva on 12 December 2001 with a view to contributing to the multilateral discussions within the “Global Consultations” and to the adoption of a joint declaration;

    - the various recommendations adopted by the Committee on Ministers, in particular at the proposal of the Ad hoc Committee of experts on Legal Aspects of Territorial Asylum, Refugees and Stateless Persons (CAHAR) on issues relating to the legal status of refugees and asylum-seekers should be progressively incorporated by member states into their national legislation.”

    Appendix

    - European Agreement on the transfer of responsibility for refugees (16 October 1980, ETS 107),

    - Recommendation No. R (81) 16 on the harmonisation of national procedures relating to asylum, adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 5 November 1981,

    - Recommendation No. R (94) 5 on guidelines to inspire practices of the member states of the Council of Europe concerning the arrival of asylum seekers at European airports, adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 21 June 1994,
     
    - Recommendation No. R (97) 22 containing guidelines on the application of the safe third country concept, adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 25 November 1997,
     
    - Recommendation No. R (98) 13 on the right to an effective remedy against decisions on expulsion in the context of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 18 September 1998,

    - Recommendation No. R (98) 15 on the training of officials who first come into contact with asylum seekers, in particular at border points, adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 15 December 1998,

    - Recommendation No. R (99) 12 on the return of rejected asylum seekers, adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 18 May 1999,

    - Recommendation No. R (99) 23 on family reunion for refugees and other persons in need of international protection , adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 15 December 1999,
     
    - Recommendation No. R (2000) 9 on temporary protection, adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 3 May 2000,

    - Recommendation No. (97) 20 on the “hate speech” adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 30 October 1997,

    - Recommendation No. (97) 21 on the media and the promotion of a culture of tolerance adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 30 October 1997,

    - Recommendation Rec (2001) 18 on subsidiary protection adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 27 November 2001.