The Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, presented the Greek Chairmanship’s strategy in his opening remarks during today’s high-level videoconference – the first such conference with the heads of all the CoE institutions – against the backdrop of the eternal symbol of Democracy and global civilization, the sacred rock of the Acropolis. The place where, as Mr. Varvitsiotis noted, another pandemic occurred 2,400 years ago – an historic example of how a sanitary crisis can impact democracy. The Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs added that, “great challenges, such as the sanitary crisis we are experiencing today, call for joint responses, and the best place to carry out such a discussion is in the Council of Europe.”
The main topic of the discussion was the central theme of Chairmanship, which is protection of human life and public health in the context of a pandemic and effective management of a sanitary crisis with full respect for human rights, the principles of democracy and the rule of law. “The sanitary crisis was not only a threat to human life, but also a threat to our democracy,” Mr. Varvitsiotis emphasised, underscoring the need for “the hard measures that were taken and that imposed severe limits on specific fundamental rights and liberties to be temporary, proportionate and based on scientific facts that prove their necessity.”
“Public health and democracy have a special place in our pyramid of values as well as in our long European political, cultural, social and legal tradition,” he said, underscoring that “the principles of democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights are at the core of the Council of Europe and the invaluable protections afforded to us by the European Convention on Human Rights for 70 years now, and these are the principles and values that guide us in these difficult times.”
The Alternate Minister also referred to the economic impact of the pandemic on the real economy and the labour market. But he underscored that our attention must focus on the broader social and humanitarian consequences. For this reason, the Greek Chairmanship deems it necessary to adopt a number of Principles concerning the response to the pandemic, in the form of an “Athens Declaration,” during the upcoming 130th Session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which is scheduled to take place in Athens on 4 November 2020. “These principles will serve as a map for all of us: citizens, organizations and governments. A Declaration that will open a new page, a new chapter in the book of human rights protection,” the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, stressed, closing by highlighting that this is the first time such a text will be produced, putting the Council of Europe on the front line of human rights protection.
Having welcomed the Greek Chairmanship’s initiative for today’s conference, and stressing the importance of the Declaration Athens is planning for all the members of the organization, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić, noted that “this will be a fine way to mark the 70th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights, which also united so many across our continent.”
The Chairperson of Greek Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Dora Bakoyannis, spoke in the same spirit with regard to the importance of the Athens Declaration – for both the Council of Europe and world – pointing to the experience we gained through the COVID-19 pandemic and how this experience should be used the next day. “And it is this next day that the Greek Chairmanship is about. We need a sincere discussion on our principles and our values and how they meet the needs of an ever-changing society, often in crisis and emergency,” she stated.
The discussion was also joined by the President of the Parliamentary Assembly, Rik Daems, the President of the European Court of Human Rights, Robert Spano, the CoE Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, the President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Anders Knape, the President of the Congress of INGOs, Anna Rurka, the President of the Venice Commission, Gianni Buquicchio, the President of the European Committee of Social Rights, Giuseppe Palmisano, the President of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), Mykola Gnatovskyy, the Chair of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), Maria Daniella Marouda, the Chair of the Lanzarotte Committee, George Nikolaidis, and the former President of the European Court of Human Rights, Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos.
June 3, 2020