Commissioner for Human Rights presents Memorandum on Denmark

 

Strasbourg, 11.07.2007 - Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, today presented a Memorandum on Denmark to the Committee of Ministers.

 

Prepared after a visit by members of the Commissioner's office in December 2006, the memorandum contains an assessment of progress in implementing the recommendations made in 2004 by the previous Commissioner, Alvaro Gil-Robles. It also contains new recommendations to the Danish authorities.

 

Commissioner Hammarberg urges authorities to be less restrictive concerning family reunifications for immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers, and makes a number of concrete proposals in this regard.

 

He calls on authorities to find alternative solutions to the indefinite stay of adults and children in reception centres for asylum seekers, when it is impossible to deport foreigners whose applications have been definitively rejected.

 

The Commissioner also recommends strengthening the independence and powers of the Police Complaints Boards, and granting at least temporary residence permits to victims of trafficking who cooperate with authorities.

 

The Memorandum contains a number of recommendations concerning the fight against discrimination, racism, exclusion and the issue of violence against women.

Finally, the Commissioner calls on Denmark to ratify the revised European Social Charter, to sign and ratify the 1991 Protocol amending the European Social Charter, and to ratify the 1995 Additional Protocol to the European Social Charter Providing for a System of Collective Complaints.

 

He also calls for the signature and ratification of Protocol 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights, and the ratification of the Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.

 

On the same day, Commissioner Hammarberg also presented a Memorandum on Estonia and a report assessing the effective observance of human rights in Germany.

 

The full text of the Memorandum can be accessed via the Commissioner's website www.commissioner.coe.int under "Latest documents".