There has been heavy criticism, particularly in the UK, of judges stopping deportations of convicted criminals, citing the Council of Europe's Convention on Human Rights. Several EU countries have taken issue with this and raised the issue at a rare meeting of Council of Europe justice ministers in Strasbourg.
The convention protects the perpetrators rather than the victims and their right to redress, and I find that offensive, said Migration Minister Johan Forssell (M) at a Swedish press conference in Brussels on Monday.
“Practice is evolving”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are pushing in a joint debate article in the newspaper The Guardian and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M) is also providing flank support via X.
The criticism has included the fact that convicted criminals could not be deported because it is considered to restrict their rights to, for example, meet relatives.
For the Swedish part, Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (M) was present at Wednesday's meeting in Strasbourg.
We do not go in and decide how to assess individual cases, but it is very legitimate for member states to follow how case law develops and, if they see that there is a need for change, to use the tools available to influence it, Strömmer told TT and SR Ekot on Tuesday.
Want to change interpretation
The hope from Denmark and the UK is to work on a “modernized interpretation” of the convention. A political declaration is to be drawn up ahead of a meeting in Moldova this spring, the Council of Europe announced in a press release .
At the same time, the Council's Human Rights Commissioner Michael O'Flaherty warns against excessive intervention.
"Any idea that there is some kind of hierarchy among rights holders, where some deserve them more or less, is deeply problematic," O'Flaherty said in a speech to the ministerial meeting.
Wiktor Nummelin/TT
Facts: Council of Europe
TT
The Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg, was founded in 1949 after an idea from former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
The organization has nothing to do with the EU, but brings together basically all countries on the continent, except Russia (which was expelled in 2022), Belarus, Kosovo and the Vatican City.
The Council of Europe is best known for its court, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which handles cases in which member states are accused of violating the Council's European Convention on Human Rights.
