Newsletter of the Venice Commission

-

 autumn 2011

In this issue:

• Highlights of the October 2011 session
   

• Selected events
   

• Publications
   

• Forthcoming activities
   

All decisions of the October plenary

Meeting room of the Venice Commission


At its 88th plenary session on 14-15 October 2011,
the Commission  

- adopted opinions on inter alia following issues:

• freedoms of conscience and religion of Armenia,  (jointly with the OSCE/ODIHR) and the electoral code of Armenia (jointly with the OSCE/ODIHR);
• Status of NGOs in the legislation of Azerbaijan;
• rights of non registered associations in Belarus;
• constitutional proceedings of Bolivia;
• the Status of State Property located on the Territory of the Republika Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina);
• freedom of assembly and manifestations in Georgia;
• crimes against humanity (amicus curiae brief prepared for the Constitutional Court of Peru);
• the establishment and rules of procedure of the Constitutional Court of Turkey;
• the election of people’s deputies of Ukraine; the Bar of Ukraine, the judiciary and the status of judges in Ukraine, and freedom of peaceful assembly of Ukraine;

-   was informed on follow-up to the opinions on

o        the Draft Law on languages in Ukraine;

o        the new Constitution of Hungary;

o       the draft law on amendments to the law on election of councillors and members of Parliament of Montenegro (jointly with the OSCE/ODIHR);

-   was informed

o     by Dr Yahia El-Gamal, former Deputy Prime Minister of Egypt, on the reform process taking place in that country and by Mr Farouk Sultan, President of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt, on the Conference on constitutional drafting to be organised with the Supreme Constitutional Court in January 2012 ;

o     on recent constitutional developments in Morocco, in Romania and in Tunisia;

o     on the Conference on the rule of law to be jointly organised with the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law and to be held in March 2012 in the framework of the United Kingdom Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers;

 (read synopsis of the plenary)

• Freedom of assembly - Georgia, Ukraine

Basing itself on the Guidelines for Peaceful Assembly jointly adopted by the Commission with the OSCE/ODIHR (2nd edition, 2010), the Commission in both opinions stresses two main ideas. Firstly, the right to peaceful assembly should not be interpreted restrictively and any restrictions should be construed narrowly, and that in general, rights must be “practical and effective” not “theoretical or illusory”. Secondly, the effective guarantee of the right to freedom of assembly depends on the manner in which the legislation is implemented. The presumption in favour of assemblies will need to become a part of the legal culture and influence the use by the executive authorities and by the law-enforcement agencies of the discretionary powers which the amendments confer upon them.   
(read the summaries)

• Freedom of association - Belarus, Azerbaijan

The Venice Commission points out that the way in which the national legislation enshrines freedom of association and its practical application by the authorities reveals the state of the democracy of the country concerned. Consequently, any restriction of this right must meet strict tests of justification. It is protected under Article 22 of the ICCPR and Article 11 of the ECHR.

 (read the summaries)

• Peru - crimes against humanity

The case before the Constitutional Court of Peru concerns the qualification of crimes against humanity and statutory limitations, as in the specific case, it is discussed whether it is possible to prosecute those crimes taking into account that domestic legislation establishes limitations to prosecution. Three questions were asked to the Commission:

a.      What case-law has been issued on crimes against humanity by other courts and constitutional equivalent bodies?

b.       How have crimes against humanity been defined and established?

c.      Apart from this case-law, what type of facts have been considered as constituting crimes against humanity?

  (read the summary)

Opinions 

• Albania - electoral law and practice;
   

• Armenia – electoral law; state of emergency;
   

• Azerbaijan - political parties;  
   

• Bosnia and Herzegovina - police, internal affairs;
   

• Georgia – draft new electoral code; political parties;
   

• Serbia - law on the Constitutional Court;
   

• Ukraine - law on state languages.

 Studies

   Electoral issues

• Use of administrative resources during electoral campaign

• Extra-institutional actors in the democratic system (lobbying)

• Freedom of religion - joint OSCE - VC revised guidelines

Link to the calendar of forthcoming meetings

venice@coe.int