Turkey’s contribution to European values in Council of Europe terms

One of the world’s foremost organisations upholding human rights, the Council of Europe, has been under Turkish chairmanship since last autumn. That ends in May.

While Turkey is judged the hardest in the European Human Rights Court, the 47-member Council nevertheless tries to bridge differences.

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe President, said: “Turkey was encouraged actually to contribute to European values and the work of European institutions more actively lately. The Council of Europe chairmanship is one example of this contribution.”

Last year the European Court of Human Rights, the legal arm of the Council, ruled Turkey to have violated the human rights convention in 278 cases, more than Russia.

However, the Council’s Commissioner for Human Rights tells us that the court’s rulings are not consistently listened to.

Thomas Hammarberg said: “One problem is in fact that some of the rulings of the court have not been implemented, acted upon, by the authorities, so there is need of improvement.”

While Turkey is in fact is one of the founder nations of this organisation with a strong emphasis on democratic development and the rule of law, it continues to have difficulty with its bid to become a European Union member.

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