“Movies are powerful,” said Elena Ippoliti, Human Rights Officer for the UN Human Rights Office. “Sometimes, young people can open their eyes more through an eight-minute film, than through a two-hour lecture or a decade the Office has partnered with the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH in French) in carrying out this educational programme. The programme, which takes place during the annual film festival, provides screenings and discussions of a selection of human rights films for students mainly attending the secondary schools in Geneva.
In 2005, the Film Festival established the educational programme as a contribution to the World Programme for Human Rights Education, launched by the United Nations in that same year. The Office supports the programme in various ways such as by providing experts to participate in the discussions and helping the formulation of materials for teachers to use in the classroom, Ippoliti said.
GROUP OF EXPERTS ON ACTION AGAINST VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
An important step was taken to deter violence against women yesterday, when the Council of Europe named 10 members to a new monitoring group that will enforce the organisation’s unique convention to end violence against women.
The first 15 countries that ratified the convention have just elected 10 independent experts to make up the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO).
Member states that have ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) have set up a committee (Committee of the Parties) to elect GREVIO members and ensure that GREVIO’s future recommendations are followed up.
The Committee against Torture today concluded its consideration of the third periodic report of The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on its implementation of the provisions of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Introducing the report, Ilija Ristovski, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice, said strengthening the independence of the judiciary remained a national priority. The Government was strongly committed to continuing reforms of the penitentiary system with a focus on reducing overcrowding in prisons across the country by constructing new facilities and repairing existing ones, establishing a sustainable probation service system, strengthening the capacities of prison personnel, and improving the treatment of convicted offenders, including enhanced re-socialization activities. There was a zero-tolerance policy on ill-treatment and corruption among law-enforcement bodies. Punishments for the crime of torture had been made much stricter with the sentence increased to a maximum eight years imprisonment. A new law on the Prevention of and Protection against Domestic Violence was adopted in September 2014. Efforts to improve the living conditions in psychiatric hospitals and dehospitalization of psychiatric establishments in general were ongoing.
Europe’s democratic shortcomings are bigger, deeper and geographically more widespread than previously understood according to the latest overview of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in the 47 Council of Europe member states.
The report, by Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland, identifies the lack of judicial independence in many countries and threats to media freedom across the continent as the two biggest challenges to democratic security.
“Honest and decent courts are essential for supporting democracy and maintaining stability, yet over a third of our member countries are failing to ensure that their legal systems are sufficiently independent and impartial,” said the Secretary General.
Committee of Ministers reaffirms unequivocal opposition to the death penalty
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has reaffirmed its unequivocal opposition to the death penalty in all places and in all circumstances, welcomed the global trend towards abolition, and reiterated its objective to create a death penalty-free zone in Europe.
The Committee called on Russia to take all the necessary steps to transform the existing moratorium on the death penalty into de jure abolition and to ratify Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights. The Russian Federation is the only member State which has not yet abolished the death penalty.
