“The situation of more than 400 persons kept on private ships just outside Malta’s territorial waters is unsustainable and requires immediate action”, said today Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.

Since Malta closed its ports in response to the Covid-19 crisis, persons rescued at sea are no longer disembarked on land, but rather transferred to ships rented by the government, positioned off Malta’s coast. The government has publicly stated that those on the ships should remain there until such time that other member states commit to relocating them.

In April, the Commissioner stressed that, despite the challenges presented by Covid-19, safe and prompt disembarkation of persons rescued at sea should continue. In early May, the Commissioner called upon the Maltese authorities not to put at risk the rights of rescued persons because of disagreements between member states about disembarkation, and to give priority to humanitarian considerations. “I am concerned that since then, additional ships have been rented and that the number of people kept on them, without a clear prospect of prompt disembarkation, has substantially increased.”

The Commissioner strongly reiterates that coastal member states at the forefront of receiving refugees, asylum seekers and migrants should be able to rely on support from other states. Accordingly, the creation of structural solutions at the European level remains crucial for this purpose. “Discussions about a fair and equitable system for responsibility sharing have been continuing for too long. Once again, I call on member states to promptly decide on such a system in a true spirit of solidarity. However, I do not believe that keeping survivors at sea, as is happening now, is the right way to make much-needed changes happen”, she adds.

While welcoming the evacuation of some vulnerable individuals, the Commissioner notes that many more persons have been kept at sea for prolonged periods, some for more than a month, without a clear solution in sight. “Experience shows that when rescued persons are kept without a possibility for disembarkation for prolonged periods, their health tends to deteriorate rapidly”, she commented. “This would lead to an emergency situation triggering obligations for Malta, which has full control over the ships where people are now held, to quickly evacuate them. Making safe disembarkation on land dependent on other member states’ commitments to relocate those brought to Malta, or waiting until emergencies make evacuation inevitable, only prolongs the agony of those on board and ends up putting their physical and mental health at risk.”

“As an immediate measure, I urge Malta to grant monitoring bodies and agencies providing assistance and protection access to those rescued,” the Commissioner said. However, this must be followed by urgent and concrete actions to ensure the current situation is ended as soon as possible and to avoid its repetition. The Commissioner is also concerned that the confinement of those rescued on the ships, as well as the lack of remedies against this measure and its indefinite duration may not be compliant with the right to liberty of those on board, as guaranteed by Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights. “I also urge Malta to ensure that the decision to position the ships just outside territorial waters does not result in those on board being deprived of the opportunity to request international protection”, she adds.

The Commissioner reiterated that, any challenges notwithstanding, it remains paramount that no action by Council of Europe member states results, either directly or indirectly, in the return of migrants at sea to places where they face serious human rights violations. In this respect, she highlighted again her position that any cooperation with the Libyan authorities that would result in such returns should be suspended.

03 Junio 2020 Parlamento de navarra

La otra vacuna contra la pérdida de la biodiversidad. La hora de la Naturaleza

5 de junio de 2020

La institución del Ararteko quiere sumarse a la celebración, mañana, del Día Mundial del Medio Ambiente, que en 2020 tiene como objeto una llamada urgente a la acción para combatir la acelerada pérdida de especies y la degradación de sus hábitats. El planeta dispone de una biosfera maravillosa, en la que se distribuye una variedad de 8 millones de especies. Según los expertos, hasta un millón de especies animales y vegetales están amenazadas de extinción y pueden desaparecer en pocas décadas, si no se toman medidas efectivas, urgentes y decisivas.

En este contexto, el Ararteko quiere recordar que la necesidad de preservar la diversidad biológica en el planeta es un compromiso firmemente asumido tanto por los organismos internacionales como por las instituciones europeas, estatales y regionales. El Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, junto con el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente, ha lanzado el Decenio de las Naciones Unidas sobre la Restauración de los Ecosistemas (2021-2030), una iniciativa global para restablecer la relación entre los humanos y la naturaleza. Al mismo tiempo, una de las metas de la Agenda 2030 para el Desarrollo Sostenible implica detener la pérdida de biodiversidad. Por su parte, Euskadi ha establecido cuáles son las prioridades en este ámbito y los compromisos adquiridos mediante la adopción de la Estrategia de Biodiversidad 2030. Este camino no está exento de conflictos sociales, que requieren un profundo debate y participación social, sin olvidar que nuestro principal objetivo es el de preservar un adecuado estado conservación de las especies existentes en el territorio vasco. Sirvan como ejemplos la reciente inclusión del lobo en el catálogo vasco de especies amenazadas o las medidas puestas en marcha para evitar la muerte por electrocución de las aves migratorias.

La aparición de la COVID-19 es considerada por muchos como un paradigma de que la presión humana sobre la biodiversidad puede alterar el delicado equilibrio de la naturaleza, facilitando las condiciones para la propagación de patógenos, incluidos los coronavirus. Por otro lado, los efectos del gran confinamiento planetario del 2020 han permitido comprobar de cerca la enorme influencia de la especie humana sobre el planeta. Durante unos días, la contaminación atmosférica en nuestras ciudades ha descendido a niveles desconocidos, facilitando incluso que diversas especies de animales hayan recuperado espacios urbanos. Las dificultades para dar una respuesta mundial organizada a esta pandemia demuestran que la imperiosa necesidad de una acción temprana, sostenible y solidaria es la vacuna que requiere nuestra sociedad para solucionar los grandes problemas que amenazan el planeta, como son el calentamiento global o la pérdida de biodiversidad.

En este Día Mundial del Medio Ambiente, el Ararteko quiere llamar la atención de las autoridades y de la ciudadanía vascas sobre el hecho de que necesitamos, cuanto antes, resituar la actividad humana, para recuperar el espacio de todas las especies posibles en el planeta. Es un reto complejo, pero no es momento de desánimo. Es la hora de la Naturaleza.

Vitoria-Gasteiz, 4 de junio de 2020

The Public Defender of Rights receives around 250 complaints concerning the state administration of courts a year, one third of them addresses delays in court proceedings.

In one of the recent cases, the complainant objected that even after one year and a half of the divorce proceedings, the motion was not served to the opposing party. However, the court found his complaint against delays unreasonable since the judge could not be held liable for the delays. The reasons for the excessive length of the proceedings lied in the problems with the certified translation into an exotic language of the applicant's wife because there was only one interpreter authorised for the translation of the language. Due to his workload and health issues and despite the court's urgency, the translation could not be completed in time.

Although the Ombudsman did not find the judge responsible for the delays, he found that the responsibility of the State still applies because the delays were caused by objective circumstances on the side of the court.

The Ombudsman concluded that even though the judge and the Vice-President of the court actively tried to find an alternative solution of the situation, the delays objectively occurred, and the complaint was therefore justified. Finally, he also informed the complainant about his right to obtain a reasonable satisfaction for the non-material damage that could be claimed at the Ministry of Justice within 6 months prior the end of the proceedings.