National judiciaries, police must respect human rights, Council of Europe’s Commissioner Muižnieks tells OSCE

States must do more to ensure that their national judiciaries and law enforcement uphold human rights at all times, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks told the OSCE Permanent Council on 27 February 2014.

He observed that delays or absence of implementation of decisions taken by national courts is one of the most insidious challenges to the rule of law.

“Reforms to justice systems in some countries are needed to strengthen the independence of national judiciaries,” said Muižnieks. “If a judiciary becomes delegitimized by the elite, it leads to a lack of confidence on the part of the public. As a result, the public have little choice but to resort to non-legal means or to apply directly to the European Court of Human Rights which inevitably leads to a backlog of cases. ”

He urged law enforcement to respect the freedom of peaceful assembly, and called on States to combat impunity and ensure that law enforcement officers who breach the human rights of protesters are brought to justice.

The human rights of Roma and migrants also need protection and promotion, said Muižnieks, highlighting the problem of segregation in housing and education, and ethnic profiling as particular problems.