Official hand-over from Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles, the first Commissioner for Human Rights, to Mr. Thomas Hammarberg (Sweden), new Commisioner for Human Rights, took place in the Council of Europe the 3rd of April.
21/12/2007 :: An official hand-over ceremony took place in the Council of Europe as Thomas Hammarberg succeeded Alvaro Gil-Robles as the new Commisioner for Human Rights. Thomas Hammerberg was elected as the second Council of Europe Commissioner of Human Rights, by the Parliamentary Assembly on the 5th of October 2005. Hammerberg is elected for a non-renewable term of office of six years.
As the Secretary General Terry Davis pointed out in his speech: "he is expected to introduce his own personal way of carrying out his responsibilities". Furthermore, he should look "closely and learn from the experience of his predecessor ". Moreover, Terry Davis emphasized the importance of the institutions independence and impartiality, especially the avoidance of double standards and ranking the memberstates government with respect to geographical location or the time it received membershipstatus of the Council of Europe.
Maud de Boer Buquicchio, Deputy Secretary General, pointed out the increasing tendency of the European Court of Human Rights to make reference to the Council of Europe Bodies in its judgements. Although it is essential differences in the nature of the various human rights mechanism of the Council of Europe, cooperation and coordination exists. The Commissioner plays an important role in "promoting the implementation of the conclusions and recommendations of other components of the Human Rights system of the Council of Europe."
Mr. Thomas Hammerberg expressed his gratitude to Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles and stressed the importance of cooperation and exchange of information with other human rights institutions, for instance the establishment of a European Agency for Fundamental Rights in Vienna. Furthermore, he underlined the Commissioners role of being critical and constructive and regarded the enforcement of the agreed human rights through implementation as the main task of his work. He also underlined the need for sufficient resources to the Council of Europe as a whole and to the Commissioner to enable the institutions to carry out its functions in a satisfactory way.
The panel, among others, Mr. Georghe Magheru, (Ambassador, Romania, Chairman of the Ministers` Deputies), Mr. Per Sjøgren (Ambassador, Sweden), Ms. Ann-Marie Nyroos (Ambassador, Finland) and Judge Peer Lorentzen (Section President, ECHR) expressed their thankfulness to the outgoing Commissioner, Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles, (Spain), for his remarkable work and historic contribution to the Council of Europe as the first Commissioner for Human Rights.
When Protocol No. 14 to the European Convention on Human Rights comes into force, the Commissioner has a new prerogative, to submit Amicus Curea Brief, written comments and take part in hearings in cases pending before the Chambers of the European Court of Human Rights.