European Diary Denis StauntonSeated in a vast circle in Warsaw's Royal Castle yesterday, presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers from 46 countries took turns to pour praise on the Council of Europe as the continent's oldest international political organisation.
But within 10 minutes of the start of the council's third summit since its foundation in 1949, secretary general Terry Davis cut straight through the rhetoric by asking:
"The challenge facing this summit of heads of state and government is to answer the question: what is the purpose of the Council of Europe? In a world crowded with international organisations, what is the Council of Europe for?"
When it emerged out of the debris of the second World War, the council had the clear purpose of putting human rights, democracy and the rule of law at the heart of Europe's new political order. Hitler's rise to power through electoral success in Germany had shown that democracy alone could not prevent tyranny; it had to be accompanied by systems to protect human rights and a commitment to the rule of law.
The post-war division of Europe and the emergence of the European Union all but eclipsed the Council of Europe for many years. But the organisation came into its own in the 1990s as a training ground for democracy and human rights for many former communist states, eight of which joined the EU last year.
The council continues to play an important role in human rights monitoring, particularly in the Balkans, the Caucasus and in Russia; and has expanded its activities into other areas, such as education, culture and sport. Its budget remains modest, with Ireland contributing just €2.6 million this year.
The basis of all the council's work remains the European Convention on Human Rights, adopted in 1953 and ratified by all member states.
The convention guarantees, among other things, the right to life; the right to liberty and security of person; the right to a fair trial; the right to freedom of expression; and freedom of peaceful assembly. It prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment; slavery, servitude and forced labour; and discrimination in the enjoyment of rights and freedoms.
The convention is enforced by the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, described by one senior diplomat yesterday as the "sacred citadel" of the council. Each member state appoints a judge to the Strasbourg court, where Ireland is represented by John Hedigan.
What makes the court unique is the fact that any individual citizen from any of the 46 member states can apply to it directly if they have exhausted the legal options in their own country. Strasbourg judgments have forced governments to change laws in many European countries, including Ireland's ban on homosexual acts, Finland's law governing child custody and visiting rights, and Turkey's laws on police detention.
But the court's success is creating its own problems, with a backlog of 80,000 applications pending. The court's president, Luzius Wildhaber, insisted yesterday that the massive number of pending cases did not reflect any dysfunction or inefficiency within the system.
"They simply reflect the importance which the court has acquired in the minds and hearts of all Europeans, from Dublin to Vladivostok.
"They are the inescapable consequence of the pan-European reach of the convention guarantees and of the fact that the court has done nothing but to faithfully fulfil its duties under the convention," he said.
Reforms are already under way, aimed at filtering applications more efficiently to exclude obviously frivolous cases and encouraging national courts to reduce the need for recourse to Strasbourg, by taking its case law into account in their own deliberations.
Mr Wildhaber believes more change is needed and he called yesterday for the establishment of a panel of eminent people to consider how to make the court more effective.
In his address to the summit today, the Taoiseach will back Mr Wildhaber's call for change and urge that the court should be given the resources it needs to continue its work.
For Mr Wildhaber, nothing less than a thorough examination of the court's activities is needed if it is to face the challenges ahead. "Now is not the time for a quick fix, but for a vision. A vision on how to ensure that the European Court of Human Rights remains what it has been since its creation, for the benefit of nearly two generations of citizens: the tangible symbol of the effective pre-eminence on our continent of human rights and the rule of law," he said.
The Taoiseach will tell the summit today that Ireland attaches "the highest priority" to reform of European Court of Human Rights.
He will tell delegates that "such reform is widely regarded as essential if it is to preserve its effectiveness," a statement issued last night said.
The Taoiseach said he particularly welcomed the fact that the summit was being held in Poland " a country that has contributed immensely to dismantling Cold War divisions and constructing a new order of liberty and democracy to the European continent"