Migration and Media Freedom in focus of Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks’ address to OSCE Permanent Council

Vienna, 17 November 2017 –Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Nils Muižnieks addressed the OSCE Permanent Council yesterday at the invitation of the Austrian OSCE Chairmanship. The Commissioner underlined the importance of strong co-operation between the two organizations in ensuring that, in addressing many of today’s complex security challenges, Human Rights are safeguarded as a fundamental pillar of democracy.

Commissioner Muižnieks presented an overview of actions undertaken during his mandate, highlighting the need to be innovative in defending and promoting Human Rights. As important innovations during his mandate, Commissioner Muižnieks mentioned the use of Third Party interventions in proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights to complement country reports and the development  of new communications  strategies in Human Rights advocacy.

Nevertheless, noted Muižnieks, a number of worrying trends have also been noted in recent years, in particular in the treatment of Migrants as well as in the field of Media freedom. “The Migration crisis is often accompanied by major violations of Human Rights”, noted the Council of Europe Commissioner, “with the adoption by States of ‘temporary measures’ that are increasingly becoming permanent and the lack of a long-term strategy for integrating migrants.”

“Freedom of the media is extremely important for the Human Rights system as a whole, and quality journalism is key to civic participation”, stressed Muižnieks.  “Police violence against journalists, defamation laws that threaten journalists’ independence, concentration of media ownership and the temptation to turn public service media into government media are some of the most worrisome trends we are witnessing today.”

Today more than ever, it is essential to prioritize the situation of media and human rights defenders if we wish to uphold the principles of democracy that both the Council of Europe and the OSCE are founded on”, concluded Muižnieks.