NCHR at 20: Celebrating with a Symposium

 

-Turning twenty is no major event, but it offers a possibility to raise one's focus from the day-to-day tasks to the more general questions. Anniversaries such as this should offer the possibility to reflect, and this is why we are so pleased that the Symposium takes place here in Oslo, closing a year both of celebrations and reflections.
NCHR director, Professor Geir Ulfstein (picture, left), is hosting the The Human Rights Architecture of Europe Symposium on November 29 and 30. The Symposium brings together around 30 international experts on the various Human Rights bodies of Europe. The Symposium will work towards a critical, but constructive assessment of how the architecture functions.

-The Symposium will focus on the organisational framework for human rights in Europe, says director Ulfstein. -The main questions are how this framework functions at present, and how its effectiveness can be improved. The approach should be on a long term basis, say 5 – 10 years. And the fundamental questions should not be avoided: Are the Council of Europe, the

Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and The European Union necessary instruments in the promotion of human rights? And do we need three different bodies? True enough, there are numerous differences between the three bodies, the degree of international legal commitment varies, and they have different geographical scope. But there are also overlapping fields of engagement, and the Symposium should focus on these overlaps: Do they ensure increased international commitment and better results, or do they result in ineffectiveness, rivalry and waste of resources? We also feel it important to identify possible areas of engagement that so far have been disregarded.

With this in mind, we intend to present positions and proposals regarding the organisations’ procedures and practice, including possible areas of expanded future cooperation. And, speaking of cooperation, the dialogues and relationships between the European bodies and various counterparts on the global level, especially the UN on the one hand, and the national authorities on the other, should also be closely examined by the Symposium, says director Ulfstein.