Constitutional transformation of the Republic of Croatia during the monitoring procedure of the Council of Europe

The author analyses the constitutional transformation of the Republic of Croatia during the monitoring procedure of the Council of Europe. Croatia once achieving the membership in the Council of Europe took several obligations to change constitutional system according to values and democratic standards represented by the Council of Europe. They have included e.g. protection of national minorities, freedom of media, changing of the system of the local government and the election law. Realization of those obligations was controlled by the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Council of Europe, through the Venice Committee, has helped Croatia to fulfill those obligations.

Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms as a fundamental instrument of the European law – does this statement still remain valid?

Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is often referred as a fundamental instrument of the European law. The following study, through a detailed description of the circumstances of creation of the Convention, its normative content, enforcement mechanism and the current context in which it is in force, seeks to demonstrate whether the above statement remains valid in the current political and legal reality. It is true that in the Convention sovereign states accepted for the first time legal obligations to secure the classical human rights and freedoms and – what is particularly relevant – to allow all individuals to bring applications against the state, leading to a specially founded international judicial body finding them in breach. This was a crucial, revolutionary step in the evolution of the international law that, for centuries, had been based on such deeply entrenched foundations as the ideas that the settlement of the freedoms and rights of individuals was within the domestic jurisdiction of states and that individuals were not subjects of rights in this law. The Convention has thus generated the effective enforcement mechanism in the world, which contribution to the setting of standards for the protection of human rights and freedoms is unrivalled. However, it cannot be lost from one’s sight that currently the presence of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union in the European legal space and the weakness of the Council of Europe, under of which auspices the European Convention on Human Rights was adopted, manifesting itself in the fact that it associates a large number of countries with quite diverse political and legal culture and the standards of democracy, make the practical importance of the Convention be the subject of constant verification.

Polish Input in Building European Structures

The article is devoted to the process of creating European structures after 1990, and in particular the actions taken by the representatives of the Polish state. An effective process of bringing Poland closer to the European structures began with the actions that were aimed at establishing Poland’s membership in the Council of Europe; those actions, however, were also aimed at obtaining member status in other specialized organizations, such as: the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Energy Agency (IEA), and the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). These accessions were followed with a crowning achievement of obtaining a full member status in the NATO. Nevertheless, it was accession to the EU that required particular engagement from all environments, including both political and academic. The author, who was directly involved in those events, pays particular attention to the works and output of the Convention on the Future of Europe (the European Convention).

Impact of Council of Europe on the shaping and popularizing of the standards of the rule of law

The subject of the article is the issue of the Council of Europe’s impact on shaping and popularizing of the standards of a principle of the rule of law. The rule of law is one of the three basic values on which the Council’s activities is based. The Council’s care of maintaining the rule of law standards by the member states is manifested in two main areas. First of all, the Council undertakes activities aimed at defining and creating a uniform, universal way of understanding the principle of the rule of law by individual states. Secondly, the Council’s legal system states a few specific mechanisms to enforce the implementation by the member states of the principle. However, as practice shows, not all of them are sufficiently effective.

Outline of international legal regulations concerning bar associations

In the modern democratic states the independent bar associations are an important guarantee of an effective right to legal aid, which is in turn an important element of the right to fair trial. In the multicentric legal system of modern democratic countries, not only constitutional norms, but also international regulations are the source of proper standards regarding the features of these self-governments. The aim of this study is to present these regulations synthetically in the universal system of the United Nations and in the European systems of the Council of Europe and the European Union.

The role of Harold Macmillan in the work of the Assembly of the Council of Europe between 1949 and 1951

European issues were obviously very close to Harold Macmillan’s heart from the beginning of his political path, which goes back to 1924. This paper looks at the activities of Harold Macmillan in the Assembly of the Council of Europe between 1949 and 1951 and discusses his views on European cooperation.

Rozpatrywanie kwestii edukacji międzykulturowej i dialogu międzykulturowego w kontekście prawnym i instytucjonalnym pozwala ustalić, jaka jest oficjalna polityka danego państwa lub organizacji międzynarodowej oraz dominujący dyskurs w odniesieniu do tzw. mniejszości. Autor koncentruje się na działalności Rady Europy, której rola w promowaniu edukacji międzykulturowej i dialogu międzykulturowego jest kluczowa. Rada Europy wypracowała wiele instrumentów (konwencje, rekomendacje, rezolucje, deklaracje, „karty”), które podejmują kwestie różnorodności kulturowej i pluralizmu oraz promują wizję społeczeństw bardziej demokratycznych, w których filozofia praw człowieka umożliwia transcendencję partykularyzmów lokalnych. Szczególną uwagę zwrócono na Białą Księgę w sprawie dialogu międzynarodowego „Żyć wspólnie jako równi w godności”, uznawaną aktualnie za dokument referencyjny w kwestiach demokratycznego zarządzania różnorodnością. Podkreślono znaczenie Europejskiej Konwencji Praw Człowieka i Podstawowych Wolności oraz orzecznictwa Europejskiego Trybunału Praw Człowieka w definiowaniu i generowaniu norm determinujących prawne i polityczne wymiary dialogu międzykulturowego.

Artykuł ukazuje problematykę edukacji międzykulturowej jako koniecznego kroku w celu integracji i wzajemnego porozumienia pomiędzy mieszkańcami a imigrantami w Europie. Rada Europy oraz Unia Europejska popierają migracje międzynarodowe. Większość działań UE jest jednak skierowana do obywateli unijnych. Unia Europejska wraz z Radą Europy próbują zwiększyć kompetencje międzykulturowe poprzez organizowanie wydarzeń (np. zainicjowanie Roku Dialogu Międzykulturowego w 2008 roku) oraz propozycje zmian w aktach prawnych. Unia Europejska promuje również migracje o charakterze edukacyjnym, m.in. Erasmus, Tempus oraz Młodzież w działaniu. Udział w projektach zaproponowanych przez Komisję Europejską umożliwia zwiększenie kompetencji kulturowych oraz chęć odkrywania innych kultur oraz zrozumienie międzykulturowe. Natomiast podczas spotkań Rady Europy w latach 2003 i 2005 postanowiono podtrzymywać i rozwijać jedność pomimo różnorodności społeczeństw poprzez aktywne działanie w zakresie zwiększenia poziomu edukacji międzykulturowej jako elementu polityki edukacyjnej. W Planie Działań podkreślono szczególną rolę edukacji w tworzeniu nowej Europy. Wyznaczano wówczas takie kierunki działań, jak rozwój kilku edukacji: obywatelskiej, na rzecz praw człowieka, międzykulturowej, a także promocję wymiany międzykulturowej oraz zapewnienie różnorodności kulturowej i dialogu międzykulturowego. Zalecane jest, aby politycy unijni zastanowili się nad rozwiązaniem problemu niezrozumienia pomiędzy Europejczykami a imigrantami z Azji oraz Afryki.

Attempts of the European Union for accession to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms have been made for years, which proves the task is very difficult in the context of the institutional and legal issues. In view of the complexity of the issue and limitations as to the scope of this paper the focus is on selected legal acts sui generis, as passed by the EU institutions and by the Council of Europe. The analysis covered the stance of the Court of Justice of the European Union and it was based on the legal opinions formulated on the basis of the primary law. The question whether the said accession is still possible remains unanswered.

The rule of law is one of the founding values of the EU, as indicated in Art. 2 TEU. This provision recognizes that the rule of law is a core value, inherent to liberal democracy, and one which characterized the Union and its Member States. Taking into account this context, as well as the deficiencies of the EU mechanism to enforce the rule of law within the Member States, European Parliament called on the Commission to establish a new tool to address rule of law backsliding in Member States. In October 2016, Parliament addressed recommendations to the Commission on the establishment of EU mechanism on democracy, the rule of law, and fundamental rights (EU pact for DRF) in the form of an international agreement. The new mechanism should integrate and complement the existing mechanism, should be evidence-based, objective, addressing the Member States and EU. The author analyzes this initiative and tries to answer why it was not fully realized. Additionally, he presents a reaction to that initiative of the Council of Europe. There is no doubt, that realization of the EU Pact for DRF would inf luence the Council of Europe and weaken its role as a main European mechanism in the area of protection of democracy, rule of law, and human rights.

Free speech and freedom of the media are essential to the functioning of democratic systems. However, recent decades have brought phenomena that pose a threat to media freedom. The author analyzed threats to media freedom and journalist’s security regarding resolution 2317 (2020) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. All Council of Europe Member States must effectively guarantee the safety of journalists, create an environment conducive to freedom of the media and prevent the misuse of laws or normative provisions that may affect this freedom, without which there is no democracy. The right of journalists to protect their sources must be guaranteed; police violence against journalists must be condemned, and sanctions against any infringement of the freedom of the media must be dissuasive. Although it is only “softlaw”, the PACE resolution may inspire the Member States to take more effective measures in this regard.

The article aims to discuss the European standards concerning the freedom of association of armed forces personnel. Relevant norms in this regard result from human rights treaty law but also from soft-law elaborated within the Council of Europe. The authors juxtapose the existing standards with the scope of the freedom of association provided in Polish Constitution of 1997 and relevant domestic law. They ask whether the armed forces personnel need to form and join trade unions to secure their rights or perhaps the existing forms of exercising the freedom of association are satisfactory? The authors conclude that the current legal solutions in Poland meet the European and constitutional standards, and allow the Polish Armed Forces to observe neutrality regarding political matters. Nevertheless, the prohibition to form and join trade unions in Polish armed forces is of statutory rather than constitutional origin.

The Council of Europe plays a special role in promoting democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human rights. The events of recent years, and especially Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, have significantly changed the conditions for the implementation of the Council of Europe’s mission. The author analyzed, based on the resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe 2473 (2022) “Strengthening the role of the Council of Europe as a cornestone of the European political architecture”, the activities of the Council of Europe aimed at seeking its role in the emerging new political architecture of Europe. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine may create conditions for a new look at the opportunities offered by the Council of Europe for European development and create a climate for intensifying forms of cooperation between European international organizations in the event of new threats to European development.

Public opinion was outraged by information that Pegasus technology, intended to combat terrorism and organized crime, was also used to combat the opposition, surveil political opponents, and influence the outcome of elections in some member states of the Council of Europe and the European Union. These organizations have undertaken studies of these situations and have formulated a number of recommendations to Member States, including Poland. The author analyzed these documents and suggests that even if they are only the so-called “soft law”, the dispositions contained therein should be consistently implemented in accordance with the values of democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human rights. Full implementation of these recommendations by Poland is necessary to improve its image among democratic European countries.