Europos Tarybos raidos pagrindiniai fragmentai

ENThe presentation was given at the conference organised by the Faculty of Law of Vilnius University in commemoration of twenty years of the membership of Lithuania in the Council of Europe, 17 June 2013. The presentation focused on the founding moments of the Council of Europe as a regional international organisation. The international organisation, which was founded on 5 May 1949, is active in all fundamental areas of public life, except for one - the defence. The agenda of the Council of Europe includes human rights, legal cooperation, social cohesion, protection of health, education, culture, heritage, sports, youth problems, participatory democracy, environmental protection, and regional planning. Currently these institutions are considered as the institutions of the Council of Europe: the Parliamentary Assembly, the Committee of Ministers, the Congress of Regional and Local authorities of the Council of Europe, the European Human Rights Court, and the Secretariat. This presentation provides an overview of the main activities of each of these institutions. Legal literature often stresses that the efforts of the Council of Europe, as an international organisation, in coordination with the cooperation process of member States with the view of solving relevant problems in Europe, must be evaluated positively. The results of such cooperation are especially obvious in drafting and adopting international treaties. During the period of the functioning of the Council of Europe, due to the efforts of the Parliamentary Assembly, the Committee of Ministers and the member States, more than 200 treaties have been adopted.Out of these, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its Protocol No. 15 should be mentioned (Protocol No. 16 has already been prepared), as well as the European Social Charter, the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The Republic of Lithuania has recognised the legal significance of 82 treaties of the Council of Europe. The analysis of the area of human rights protection leads to the conclusion that the Council of Europe consistently protects certain values. The attention must be paid to the fact that the Council of Europe is solving the issue on elimination of death penalty consistently and step-by-step. The Council of Europe has created and developed the legal basis for this issue. Within the framework of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of the Council of Europe, Protocol No. 6 on restriction of the death penalty was adopted as well as Protocol No. 13 on complete abolition of the death penalty.The author positively evaluates the activities of the Court of Human Rights and notes that the implementation of the principle on solving the case within the reasonable time at this Court is alarming. Unfortunately, it must be stated that cases are often pending five or even more years at the Court of Human Rights. According to the data of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania, at the moment 67 cases, which have already been communicated to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, are pending at the European Court of Human Rights. In some cases, the applications have been submitted in 2004-2005, thus decisions in these cases will have been taken after 8 - 9 years from the start of the proceedings. To conclude, it should be noted that the Council of Europe have created the legal foundations for cooperation of member States and has been successfully functioning for more than 60 years. It significantly contributes to the legal and political stability on the continent of Europe.