Inaug.-Diss.--Cologne. / Summary in German. Vita. Bibliography: p. 114-119.

Thesis (Habilitation)--Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, 2004/2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 559-587) and index.

Elder rights in documents of the Council of Europe The aim of this thesis is to describe documents of the Council of Europe concerning Elderly people. Documents of the Council of Europe do not contain a definition of an elderly person - like, for example, the Interamerican Union or African Union documents. We have to first find the definition of the elderly where the Council of Europe documents call a person who is over 60 years of age "elderly".The documents of the Council of Europe are a tool that is designed to help the human rights of the elderly. The aim of the documents of the Council of Europe regarding elderly people is to protect and improve the situation of the elderly who are because of their age considered a vulnerable group. The documents of the Council of Europe deal with problems like pensions, age discrimination and access to services. The most current issues that the Council of Europe have reported in their documents in 2020 and 2021 are digitalization and the coronavirus pandemic as well as the impact it has on the elderly.The documents of the Council can be divided into two types: bindng and non-binding. Binding Documents are Conventions - the most important is the European convention of human rights and European social charter. These documents offer direct protection....

The master graduation paper analyses the subject “Implementation of the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the protection of National Minorities by the Republic of Lithuania”. The goal of the graduation paper is to define implementation problems of the Framework Convention and to find possible solutions. At the first chapter a problem of defining a national minority in the international law and domestic law of the Republic of Lithuania is discussed. Since there is no definition of a national minority in the international law, it is being identified through analysis of international documents, traveaux préparatoires, expert opinions and doctrine. It is also analysed, if a notion in the domestic law is compatible with a conception in the international law. At the second chapter the main provisions of the Framework Convention are overviewed. Rights and freedoms of persons belonging to national minorities are analysed according to the case-law of the Advisory Committee of Council of Europe Committee of Ministers. Due to this analysis the main problems of implementation of the Framework Convention by Member States are identified. Moreover, the best practises according to the opinion of the Advisory Committee are presented, which may be used while protecting national minorities in Lithuania. At the third chapter implementation of the Framework Convention by the Republic of Lithuania is discussed. According to the analysis of the Advisory Committee the main problems of... [to full text]

No description available.

The protection of the emerging right of conscientious objection to military service is one of the most challenging questions in international human rights law. The primary objective of this doctoral thesis is to clearly identify the minimum international legal standards on the phenomenon of conscientious objection to military service as emerging from the jurisprudence of international human rights bodies. Furthermore, this study aims to explore and assess how the Member States of the Council of Europe are effectively implementing these standards within their domestic laws and practice. The implementation of legal standards on conscientious objection in the Council of Europe varies considerably between the 47 Member States of the organisation due to a rapidly transforming sociopolitical landscape that affects the speed in which legislative and procedural amendments take place. Some of the themes explored throughout this thesis include: the legal contours of the right to conscientious objection to military service, including the grounds legally accepted to justify a conscientious objection; procedural guarantees with regard to the application process to be granted conscientious objectors status; the provision of accurate information to members of the public affected by mandatory military service and the extension of these principles to professional members of the armed forces. The thesis is structured as a thematic presentation of applicable international human rights standards and State practice and explores common issues, best practices and future challenges between the Member States of the organisation. The study does not merely aspire to describe the present situation in the Council of Europe, but rather aims to contribute to academic know ledge by proposing the development of a more coherent framework of legal and procedural obligations, based on the need to review and adapt national legislation in accordance to indicators and benchmarks derived from the Council's standard-setting policies.

This thesis explores the capacity of local government to influence intergovernmental organizations’ policy frameworks during the formulation and implementation of their instruments and policies. It provides empirical insights into the decision making and implementation of international policy regimes, specifically within a European context, and contributes to the broader theoretical understanding of these regimes through the development of multi-level governance as a framework of analysis. The thesis extends multi-level governance as a theoretical framework in two ways. First, it does so by going beyond its usual development and application within the European Union. The role of local government is examined in the pan-European political context shaped by the Council of Europe. Second, it pays special attention to the upstream link between local authorities and international actors in the context of multi-level governance settings. To date, most research on local government in multi-level governance settings has focused on the new challenges brought by extended multiple tiers of jurisdictions and how local government has been affected by the internationally shaped political arrangements. Little attention has been placed on the upward flow of interaction of local authorities or their capacity to influence international decision making and policy implementation. Empirical research in this thesis has focused on the capacity of local government to share the meta-steering role with the multi-level governance framework. The potential of local government to influence the international policy frameworks has been investigated based on its unique value in enhancing good governance in line with international norms and principles. At the theoretical level, the research argues multi-level governance reflects not simply the redistribution of power resources among various actors, but also the process of reshaping understanding and preferences through direct communication between actors at different territorial levels. It suggests that local political preferences can be shaped and reframed by broader values and consequently generates significant influence on higher level policy outcomes. However, despite the existence of specific constitutional devices for involving local development in the legislative processes of the Council of Europe, empirical evidence shows local authorities have largely failed to take up this opportunity, and their influence remains limited. Implications hence can be drawn for wider utilization of local engagement in intergovernmental organizations; for example, within the context the Committee of the Regions of the Europe Union.

The aim of my thesis is both to describe the steps of the OAS and the Council of Europe in the fight against terrorism and also to compare their approach in this area. The thesis is divided into four chapters, which are further subdivided into three parts. The first two parts of each chapter describe the steps of each organization separately, the third part compares their approach and puts it into the context. The first chapter examines the reasons for which these organizations decided to implement the fight against terrorism on their agendas and maps the adoption of the first international instruments. Although the time scale of the activity in this area rather overlaps, I point out the different approaches of the two organizations in terms of the adopted counter- terrorism conventions. The following chapter is devoted to the period after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when a review of existing documents took place and the counter-terrorism cooperation between the countries of both regions was intensified. In this chapter, I discuss in detail the newly adopted international tools and compare their impact on the existing regulation. In the third chapter, I try to outline new areas of interest in the field of counter- terrorism. The focus is shifted to the issues like financing of...

The Right to Use a Minority Language in European Law Key words Minority languages, European Union, Council of Europe Summary The purpose of my thesis is to describe and analyse the right to use minority languages in the Council of Europe and in the European Union. The change of lifestyle and globalisation lead to the increased pressure on the European minority languages, from which many occur in the Atlas of the Worlds' Languages in Danger published by UNESCO. It is the description of the starting points and possibilities of the law protection, primarily on the ground of the two above mentioned international organisations that could reverse a rather unfavourable development in this area, which form the basis of this paper. The attention is paid to the positive rights of so called traditional minorities; the prohibition of discrimination is mentioned only marginally, as well as the problem of migrants' languages and related topics. First part of the thesis is focused on the description of bases of the language law and politics and their relation to the protection of (national) minorities, whose part is the right to use minority languages, as well as the analysis of the single components of this right. First chapter brings an overview of the legal regulation of minority rights in the context of the European...

This thesis seeks to answer the question whether economic and social rights have the same status with civil and political rights under the human rights regime of the Council of Europe. To this end, the thesis examines the assumptions with regard to the nature of economic and social rights, on the one hand, and civil and political rights, on the other. Second, it seeks to find out whether the nature of economic and social rights is different from that of civil and political rights. Third, it examines how the protection of and approach to the two sets of rights developed in the Council of Europe. Finally, it assesses the contemporary protection of economic and social rights in the Council of Europe in comparison to protection of civil and political rights.