Migration in the Mediterranean - prospects for the future

Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, deputy secretary- general of the Council of Europe, will be in Malta this week to attend a two-day conference, hosted by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Environment, on the topical issue of "Migration in the Mediterranean - Prospects for the Future". G.M. interviewed her for The Sunday Times.

You were born in Hoensbroek, the Netherlands, and studied French Literature and Law at the prestigious University of Leiden. What was the subject of your doctoral thesis?

The subject was "Equal pay for equal work" as set out in Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome. This topic was quite ground-breaking in 1969.

Over the past 35 years the situation has certainly improved, but there are still many ways to circumvent the rule, not least by classifying at a lower level work in which a majority of the workers are women.

I understand that, besides equality of treatment, you are also greatly interested in the protection of children's rights. Is that so?

Absolutely. I am very interested in this subject, as you can tell from several of my publications. At present, I am trying to increase the visibility of the Council of Europe's work in this area, and to encourage the recognition of children as legal subjects, with all the consequences that it entails.

I am convinced that the Council of Europe (CoE) should intensify its efforts towards the comprehensive protection of children and the full exercise of their fundamental rights in Europe.

Those rights are guaranteed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. All CoE member states are party to this Convention. Children's developmental state makes them particularly vulnerable to human rights violations.

Their opinions are still not sufficiently taken into account; they do not vote and cannot play a meaningful role in the political process that determines governments' response to human rights.

Children meet significant problems in using the judicial system or in seeking non-judicial remedies for violations of their rights. I am particularly opposed to any notion of corporal punishment.

CoE judicial instruments - the revised European Social Charter and the European Convention on Human Rights - reject corporal punishment. As does the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, in particular the September 1998 case A. vs the United Kingdom, which found a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, even if the ill-treatment was administered by a private individual (the stepfather of a nine-year-old boy) because under the applicable English law the defence of "reasonable chastisement" led to his acquittal.

You took an active part in the fifth meeting of the Forum for Children and Families, which was held a few days ago at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. The Forum focused on children's ombudsmen in Europe. This is a novel idea for Malta. What does it imply, and which countries have already appointed ombudsmen for children?

Specialist independent human rights institutions for children, ombudspersons or commissioners for children's rights, have been established, at national, regional or local level, in 18 CoE member states and they form a European Network for Ombudspeople for Children (ENOC).

Considering that we now have 45 member states in the CoE, a lot of progress has still to be made in this field and I take this opportunity to encourage Malta to create such an independent body and join ENOC.

In practical terms, having such an ombudsperson means that there is someone at the national level who is able to listen to children's problems and who has the capacity to take them up with the appropriate ministries or government bodies.

Once the principle of having national mediators has been accepted, there is subsequently a need for effective co-operation at European level with, for example, a European mediator for children.

This role could, initially, be fulfilled by the CoE's Commissioner for Human Rights, Alvaro Gil-Roblès, to promote and co-ordinate the creation of national ombudsmen in all CoE member states.

You joined the Council of Europe as a lawyer in 1969, and were appointed deputy secretary-general in September last year. Can you mention the main tasks you accomplished in your relatively rapid career?

If I had to name just one achievement, without doubt it would be my contribution to the launching of the new European Court of Human Rights, which came into being in November 1998, as set out in Protocol 11 to the European Convention on Human Rights. This was a complex task, but exciting nonetheless.

Is this your first visit to Malta?

No, I visited Malta at the beginning of the Maltese Presidency of the CoE's Committee of Ministers in November 2002, on the occasion of the conference on access to social rights.

I am particularly happy to be here again, both for the natural and architectural beauty and for the quality of the welcome we received. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to the authorities, and also to the Maltese people we met, for the kindness shown to us.

The subject of the conference to be held in Malta (Corinthia San Gorg, St George's Bay) on Thursday and Friday has been chosen by the Malta Government for obvious reasons. Thousands of people - including women and children - flee their country in search of a better future, risking their lives at sea in the process. Most of them land on Italian shores, where they are treated quite humanely, on the whole. Hundreds of them land in Malta, either by mistake or because of rough weather. They are treated as "illegal immigrants", and detained strictly by the police until each request for refugee status or political asylum is examined; the others are sent back home. Several local religious organisations and NGOs are not happy with this situation. Do you think a solution will be found during the conference?

If somebody had a ready-made solution, we would be very happy to know it. How to cope with irregular migration is a major issue for many governments in the Mediterranean region and the CoE is doing its utmost to assist member states in facing this challenge. Member states prepared and in 2000 adopted a strategy for the orderly management of migration flows in Europe. This strategy is based on the protection of individual human rights and of the human dignity of all migrants.

One of its main principles is close co-operation and political dialogue with origin and transit countries. This is the reason why the Maghreb countries, Ethiopia and Somalia, have been invited to this conference.

We strongly believe that a concerted implementation of this strategy in all our member states would be a major step in the right direction. I am confident that the conference in Malta will take concrete decisions on the tools needed, both at national and international level to implement the strategy effectively.

Who will be the main speakers during the conference?

Apart from Ambassador Joseph Licari, Permanent Representative of Malta to the CoE, who will chair the conference, important speakers will be Tadeusz Iwinski, chair of the Parliamentary Assembly's Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography, Yavuz Mildon, vice-president of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe, and Mgr Philip Calleja. The Council of Europe Development Bank and the European Commission will also be represented.

Are you aware of the good work being done by JRS (Jesuits' Refugee Service)? JRS director John Dardis, SJ, was in Malta lately to give advice. The local branch of JRS, the Emigrants Commission, the Peace Lab and others do their best to help the refugees...

Of course, not only are we aware of their valuable work, but I think that the conference would have lost much of its interest if we had not invited them to participate at different levels.

Mgr Calleja from the Emigrants Commission will be one of the key speakers at the conference. Fr Pierre Grech Marguerat from JRS will participate in the NGOs panel of the conference and Dr Katrine Camilleri, who is a member of that NGO, will take the floor in the session on migration management issues. Moreover, the Peace Lab, represented by Fr Dionysius Mintoff, will also take part in the panel discussion.

Unless she is pardoned by the Nigerian authorities as in the case of Safiya, Amina Lawal will soon be stoned to death for adultery. What is the Council of Europe doing to save her life and to promote human rights beyond the confines of its 45 member states?

As in the case of Safiya Hussaini, Secretary-General Walter Schwimmer wrote to President Obasanjo in March 2002 regarding the case of Amina Lawal Kurami, affirming the Council's absolute opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances and stressing the importance for Nigeria to respect international human rights standards.

Stoning someone to death is a horrific violation of human rights. Following the decision of a Nigerian Court of Appeal to uphold Ms Lawal's sentence of death by stoning, Mr Schwimmer issued a press release and addressed a second letter to the Nigerian President urging him once again to do all in his power to ensure that Ms Kurami's rights, as well as those of Ado Baranda, another person who had meanwhile been sentenced to death by stoning, were fully respected and that there will be no death sentence in either of these cases.

The Secretary-General also drew the attention of relevant international organisations to these cases. The Nigerian President has reportedly announced his opposition to the decision and promised legal support for an appeal, but has not yet directly intervened. We are following closely the appeals procedure under way.

Briefly, what is the Council of Europe's stand on the war in Iraq?

Both the CoE Secretary-General and the President of the Parliamentary Assembly made their views clear before the war broke out, appealing to the international community to privilege diplomatic action.

Once the military offensive against Iraq began, they underlined the need to protect civilians and to respect international humanitarian law.

The position of the CoE concerning the reconstruction of Iraq is that the rebuilding process can only take place under the authority of the United Nations, which is and must remain the cornerstone of international legitimacy.

As you know, Malta will have a general election on Saturday. It is important because it will confirm or otherwise Malta's bid to join the European Union. Malta is expected to sign the accession treaty in Athens, together with nine other countries, on April 16. Do you have any comments to make on this?

The CoE has welcomed the result of the referendum in Malta on accession to the European Union, and expressed its hope that the other candidate countries - already members of our organisation - will also vote in favour of EU membership.

We were delighted with the referendum result, without being surprised: Malta, which has been a member of the CoE since 1965, has long been a member of the European family of democratic nations. Accession to the EU would consolidate Malta's position in Europe.

Thank you, Mrs de Boer-Buquicchio. I wish you a pleasant stay in Malta and fruitful results in the conference you will be inaugurating as the second-highest representative of the Council of Europe secretariat.