Interview with Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty
The Press Office had the occasion to interview the new Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty about his responsibilities and his priorities for the years to come.
Congratulations on your appointment as a new Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights. Could you share with us your views on your goals and objectives assuming this important role?
First, I seek to embed concern for human rights in the response to the great issues of the moment. A second priority of mine is standing up for the most marginalised people in our societies, those pushed to the edges and often overlooked, such as Roma and Travellers, people in occupied and disputed territories, the elderly, and person with disabilities. A third priority of mine is to support human rights defenders and civil society. Fourth, it is crucial to retain and exploit the capacity to engage quickly with urgent human rights situations.
I look at how to deploy strategically the toolbox at the disposal of the Commissioner to engage human rights challenges in an agile and flexible way and through law- and evidence-based claims.
I am committed to vigorous engagement with the members states to ensure better respect for human rights. While being scrupulously independent, I will strengthen partnerships and cooperation.
Which are the main challenges and topics to be addressed regarding human rights and democracy?
First, the challenges are enormous, with copycat human rights violations, from the treatment of migrants to the pressure put on civil society. Of course, there have always been human rights violations but the extent to which states are willing to walk away from them is corrosive.
We are observing how the erosion of the rule of law creates conditions whereby border guards can push back migrants with next to no accountability or where human rights defenders and civil society actors are under increasing pressure for standing up for human rights. We observe growing distrust in public institutions and dissatisfaction with the state of democracy as well as a growing perception among people that their rights are not respected in a context of growing inequalities.
Another challenging dimension is the role of disinformation amplified through social media and the use of artificial intelligence. If you add the primordial challenge that is Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine - a deliberate war against the modern rights-based Europe, the urgent need to catch up with the fast-evolving artificial intelligence systems and the potential for an unjust energy transition, we hit at the foundations.
In this context, we must be ever vigilant to protect our societies and their institutions by defending the interconnected trio of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. We must wake up to what is at stake, and as we do, we must never forget how much has been achieved. It is a case of standing up and protecting the only universally agreed roadmap to honour human dignity.
This brings me to my second point. We are in a moment of great opportunity with a resilient Council of Europe in its 75th year and my own Office celebrating its 25th year. These milestones present us with moments to renew and reinvest.
What motivates you as a new Commissioner to continue being a partner of the Global Campus of Human Rights? What does the institution you are representing hope to achieve through the continued support to our rapidly growing academic network in the coming years?
Partnerships are essential to my work as Commissioner and the Global Campus, as an academic hub and network, plays a central role in promoting deep understanding of the issues we face.
The convenings organised by the Global Campus, such as the High-Level Human Rights Conference, provide invaluable opportunities to meet with a wide range of human rights actors and with human rights defenders from around the globe. Participating gives me the opportunity to listen to their stories. I have left this year’s edition re-energised and with a reinvigorated sense of purpose. Together, as a human rights community, we can make a difference.
Could you give a personal message to students, professors, alumni, partners and staff of the Global Campus of Human Rights?
I would like to repeat the message I delivered to the 2018/2019 Graduation Ceremony of the European Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation and Inauguration of the 2019/2020 Academic Year.
And that is: be the guardians of human rights so together we go forth to live in times of hope.
At the time, I offered a metaphor that was based on the work that Sean Scully presented at the Biennale. He had created a sculpture - a 10-meter-high multi-coloured tower made of interlocking pieces weaving it - that rose over ten metres under the dome of the Basilica San Giorgio Maggiore.
The explanation mentioned that the artist was inspired by the biblical story of Jacob’s Ladder: a ladder serving as a conduit between the world we inhabit and the one that lies beyond, the high divinity. It is a path along which you negotiate the movement from one world to the other.
I thought that this is an interesting metaphor to transpose in human rights terms.
We, who work in human rights, are also about negotiating a pathway from the ordinary day experience of our lives to the great principles of dignity, freedom, and justice.
All of us as guardians of the pathway have clear functions.
First, we must protect the pathway. We must protect the ladder of human rights because it is under threat from so many different directions.
Second, we must keep fixing the ladder because it is not perfect and it needs to be constantly fixed, adjusted and repaired to be meaningful for our lived experience.
Third, we must strengthen its foundations.
And most importantly of all, we must make sure that it is accessible. Everybody, regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender, nationality must have the access and the possibility to climb the ladder.
For more information contact our Press and Communications PR Offices:
Elisa Aquino – Isotta Esposito – Francesca Sante
pressoffice@gchumanrights.org - communications@gchumanrights.org
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