“It is very important that we really organize a summit of the leaders of the Council of Europe member states, where each leader will make a clear, unequivocal statement that if the European Court of Human Rights makes a decision, it must be respected by all CoE member states,” the chair of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ireland Simon Coveney said during a question-and-answer session with the PACE delegates at the plenary session of the summer session.
According to him, it is impossible to move forward without the protocols of the first persons of the countries. On this occasion he said, “They will say, ‘Sorry, we’ll do this one, but we’ll not do this other one because we do not like it or it is inconvenient, it is expensive.’ Thus, our goal of having an international benchmark in terms of the rule of law is violated.” The head of the Armenian delegation to the PACE, Ruben Rubinyan, stated that the Irish presidency in the Council of Europe will hold a conference in Galway on September 1 dedicated to the effective implementation of ECHR decisions in the “gray zones.”
He asked Simon Coveney if they have considered including individuals from Nagorno-Karabakh and other similar zones in those discussions whose rights, according to Ruben Rubinyan, they all try to protect better. Simon Coveney answered, “With regard to Nagorno-Karabakh, yes, we are organizing a conference on the west coast of Ireland in a town called Galway, which will be great for each of you. If you have not been there, you need to travel in that direction. In fact, our focus is on the “gray areas,” this complex area, how the Council of Europe and its bodies have a positive impact on the protection of human rights in areas where there is uncertainty in terms of sovereignty, democratic accountability or political control, etc. Nagorno-Karabakh is a particularly difficult area. I think the example you gave will probably be the key point of that conference, as it is an obvious area for discussion.”
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Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
