Human rights in Europe - Definition and Overview

Human rights in Europe are on the main upheld and defended with few exceptions. The most obvious culprits are Belarus, Russia and Turkey, although the latter has undergone major reforms to improve its human rights record in its attempt to gain European Union membership, including banning the death penalty and giving increased rights to its large Kurdish minority.

History of Human rights in Europe

Pre-1945

1945-1990

1991-present

Following the collapse and break-up of the Soviet Union, its history of severe human right abuses were laid in the open. Since then he situation has improved in most former Soviet states, mainly those in central Europe. These central European states aligned themselves with the EU instead of former master Russia, and underwent a rigorous reform of human rights laws, most notably regarding freedom of speech and religion, and the protection of minorities, particuarly the Romany. However, the more eastern of the former USSR states, as well as Russia itself, have made far slower progress. Despite all bar Belarus becoming members of the Council of Europe, constant conflict between minority group sepratists in the Caucasus has meant that successive governments in these states have passed strict laws with the aim of limiting the chnce of rebellion.

Belarus itself, often described as "Europe's last dictatorship", (and the only European state on the U.S.'s list of "outposts of tyranny"), has retained a shocking record on human rights, at least compared to its European neighbours. The press is strictly censored and controlled by the government, and the freedom to speech and protest has been removed. Although pertaining to be a democracy, election monitors have described Belarus' post-independence elections as unsound.

Russia too has kept hold of many Soviet-era laws giving the government great powers at the expense of the people's liberty, including the replacing of elected governors with appointed ones, and censorship of the press. It claims many of these measures are needed to maintain control over its volatile Caucasus border, where several rebel groups are based.

Following the collapse of communism in Yugoslavia, the state held together by the strong rule of Josip Broz Tito, several of the nations which made it up declared independence. What followed was several years of bloody conflict as the dominant nation, Serbia, attempted at first to hold the state together, and then instead to hold onto Serb-populated areas of neighbouring nations, in order to create a "Greater Serbia". Within Serbia itself there was conflict in the regions of Kosovo and Vojvodina, where Serbs are a minority.

The now five states of the former Yugoslavia, (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro¹ and Slovenia) are in various stages of human rights development. Slovenia, which suffered least in the Yugoslav wars, has since joined the EU and is widely considered to have a good human rights record and policy. Croatia, FYR Macedonia and Montenegro, which have formed stable government, have a fair human rights record, with only a few criticisms of the treatment of Serb and Albanian minorities. Croatia is also an EU applicant.

However, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia retain poor human rights records, the former is entirely governed under UN mandate, while the former's Kosovo region is too. Bosnia-Herzegovina is the most ethnically diverse of the current states of former Yugoslavia, with large groups of Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs. This is what has made peace hard to come by in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and has restricted the growth of human rights. Although several laws are in place, policing them is a difficult task.

The states of the EU, as well as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and the European microstates, have world-class human rights records, although certain laws passed in the wake of the fears over the "war on terrorism" have encroached on human rights, for example the French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools, and the UK's anti-terrorism laws enabling police to detain an individual without charge for an infinite length of time. The Vatican is unable to follow human rights guidelines fully on religious aspects due to its state and reason for existence.

Despite this, the prospect of EU membership is what has done most to encourage many European states to improve their human rights, most notably Croatia and Turkey, especially on key human rights issues such as freedom of speech and the banning of the death penalty.

¹ Serbia and Montenegro are due to hold a referendum on independence from each other in 2006.

Council of Europe

The Council of Europe is responsible for both the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights. These institutions bind the Council's members to a code of human rights which, though strict, are more lenient than those of the United Nations charter on human rights.

The Council also promotes the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the European Social Charter

to be expanded

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