IHEU and the Council of Europe

by Alexandre Marius dées de Sterio<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

Council of Europe and IHEU

The Council of Europe now has 45 European member states, the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro having been accepted in April 2003. It is a philosophical and law-oriented organization, dealing with all European or Europe-related issues, except questions related to the economic union of Europe, which is the business of the European Union, and military defence problems, which are dealt with by NATO.

 

IHEU has had the status of a recognized NGO in the field of humanist and secular values since 1954. NGOs with similar moral, philosophical, and ethical aims are very few: most NGOs close to our philosophy are rather specialized in their domain, like the International League for Child and Adult Education.

 

Representing IHEU

I am an active elected member of the Council of Europe’s NGO Liaison Committee, and my term runs up to 2004. Dr. Georges Liénard from Belgium, a specialist in the fields of biotechnology, bioethics and euthanasia, has been my proxy since 1998. During my participation in the meetings of the various working groups and committees of the International NGOs (INGOs), I received assistance from Ms Silvia Geise, Ms Branka Geise, and Ms Silke Trommer, members of the German Free Religious Humanist Association. In addition, Ms Jacqueline Herremans represented IHEU as proxy at the euthanasia hearing of the Council of Europe held in the French Senate in October 2002. Her work there has been facilitated by the IHEU statement of 4 October 2002, issued in Brussels.

 

INGOs at the Council of Europe

INGOs operate primarily through groupings in key areas of interest, for example, human rights. Many INGOs are involved in several groupings. This is only natural, given their specific features and membership and, above all, their involvement in the major debates facing society, which, in the final analysis, are all interconnected.

 

INGO groupings held a total of 22 meetings in 2002. The main thrusts of the groupings’ activities in 2002 were the future of the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights and possible INGO action in this area, as well as the groupings’ work on the European Social Charter, for which they organized a special day of training on the collective complaints procedure. The INGOs have also established organic relations with the various Council of Europe bodies, i.e. the Directorates General, the Committee of Ministers, the Steering Committees and the Commissioner, as well as with UNESCO and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the North-South Centre in Lisbon, and EU institutions. At the same time, almost all the groupings maintain regular contact with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (participation in Congress sessions, specialized committee meetings and conferences).

 

In 2002, during a special session organized by the European grouping of the INGOs actively associated with the Council of Europe and the European Union, Dr. Georges Liénard made a remarkable statement on the secular point of view concerning bioethics. In the media working group, I presented an exposé on lobbying for values in international bodies. Both exposés are to be published.

 

IHEU, European Court of Human Rights and European Social Charter

IHEU has amicus curiae status with the European Court of Human Rights and that of a correspondent organization to the European Social Charter. That gives us special rights to inform and to be active by lodging a complaint. For example, IHEU is one of the 40 select NGOs which can lodge a complaint on any issue relating to violation of the provisions of the European Social Charter. While we have not introduced any collective complaints in the past few years, we are represented at the meetings of the European Social Charter Working Groups.

 

In 2002 I helped the Norwegian Humanist Association, a member organization of IHEU, to lodge a complaint against the Norwegian state. Norwegian legislation has a Christian general clause for school education, and the complaint of the Norwegian Humanists was that this is discrimination against non-Christian minorities, as they are denied the right of exemption from these classes (application no. 1547/02, Folgero et al. vs. Norway). IHEU headquarters also issued a statement of support, and this was very welcome.

 

Recommendations: Information and Communication

The activities of the Council of Europe need to be better taken into consideration by Humanist publications, in a positive or in a critical way as necessary. The Norwegian case in the European Court of Human Rights and the debate surrounding voluntary euthanasia form good examples. This would engage our grass roots workers and members in international activity.

 

Working for Humanism Internationally

As Humanist representatives at the Council of Europe we not only act for the exclusive and explicit aims of IHEU, but for the progress of the humanistic life stance in general. Of course, IHEU is the only Humanist organization operating on a world-wide basis, being represented at all the international institutions, having general activities in the context of a Humanist world vision, which enables us to help other organizations where our aims overlap.

 

An international organization lives or disappears in the public and institutional minds with its international representation. If there is no international representation, there will be no more influence and no more presence in the public opinion. The image of an organization depends on it: Amnesty International or the Human Rights Leagues would not be known worldwide if they were only acting locally and not in international institutions too.

 

Prof. Alexandre Marius dées de Sterio is IHEU’s main representative at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.