Newsletter
of the Venice Commission |
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March 2015
plenary session |
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Decisions of the March plenary
At
its 102nd session in Venice 20-21 March 2015 the Commission
inter
alia: -
Observed a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the
deadly attack committed in Tunis on 18 March 2015 and expressed
the firmest condemnation of all acts of violence and extremism as
well as its sympathy for the families of the victims and for the
Tunisian people; -
Adopted the opinions on o the Draft Law on the Prosecution Service of the
Republic of Moldova;
(joint opinion by the Venice Commission, the Directorate of Human
Rights and the OSCE/ODIHR); o draft amendments to the Law on Media of Montenegro; o the draft Law on the Judiciary and the Status of Judges
and amendments to the Law on the High Council of Justice of
Ukraine
(joint opinion by the Venice Commission and the Directorate of
Human Rights); -
Adopted the following reports: o the update of the 2007 Report on the Democratic
Oversight of the Security Services and Report on the Democratic
Oversight of Signals Intelligence Agencies
(SIGINT); o the report on Proportional Electoral
Systems: the allocation of seats inside the lists (Open/Closed
Lists), previously adopted by the Council for Democratic Elections
on 19 March 2015; o the annual
report of activities for 2014; -
Held an exchange of views
with: o Mr Vladimir Grosu, Minister of Justice, Ms Liliana
Palihovici, Deputy Speaker of Parliament and with Mr Corneliu
Gurin, Prosecutor General of the Republic of Moldova, and
o Ms Oksana Syroyid, Vice-Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada
and with Mr Oleksiy Filatov, Deputy Head of the Presidential
Administration of Ukraine,
o Mr Pavlo Petrenko, Minister of Justice of Ukraine, on
progress in the preparation of amendments to the Lustration Law of
Ukraine, o Ms Syroyid and Mr Filatov on the constitutional
amendments with respect to the immunity of members of parliament
and judges in Ukraine, on which the Venice Commission has been
asked to prepare an opinion for the June Plenary
Session; -
Endorsed the final opinions on:
o the revised draft Law on the Public Prosecutor’s Office
and o the revised draft Law on the Special Public
Prosecutor’s Office of Montenegro, previously
sent to the Montenegrin authorities; ...
| Selected opinions
In a letter dated 13 November 2014, the Minister of
Justice of Ukraine requested the opinion of the Venice Commission on
the Draft law on Amending the Law on the Judicial System and the
Status of Judges of Ukraine. On 3-4 February 2015, a delegation of the Venice Commission composed of Mr Gianni Buquicchio, Mr Thomas Markert and Ms Hanna Suchocka visited Kyiv and held consultation meetings with the President of Ukraine, Mr Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Minister of Justice Pavlo Petrenko and the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Groysman, on constitutional reform, reform of the judiciary, electoral reform and decentralisation. The request of 13 November 2014 made by the Minister of
Justice was accompanied by an “Explanatory Note”, where it appears
that the amendments aim to remedy a number of deficiencies in the
judicial system, which the Venice Commission and the Directorate
General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs have pointed out in their
2010 Joint Opinion on the Law on the Judicial System and the Status
of Judges of Ukraine (CDL-AD(2010)026). According to the Explanatory
Note, the draft amendments also aim to fulfil the requirements of
the ECtHR judgment in the case of Oleksandr Volkov v. Ukraine (no.
21722/11, judgment of 9 January 2013).
Moldova - draft law on prosecutors
office
On 18 November and on 19 November 2014 respectively, the
Minister of Justice of Moldova sent letters to the Venice Commission
and to the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights,
requesting assistance from both institutions in reviewing the Draft
Law on the Prosecution Service of the Republic of
Moldova At the outset, OSCE/ODIHR, the Venice Commission and DG I
welcome the Draft Law, which represents, overall, a substantial
improvement of the current Law regulating the operation of the
Moldovan Prosecution Service and reflects a genuine effort to
modernize the existing legal framework, in line with relevant
European standards and best practices. The proposed changes concern various steps to secure the
autonomy of individual prosecutors and the service’s own
independence from external influence, the structure of the service
and its demilitarisation, the appointment, tenure and removal of the
Prosecutor General, the appointment and promotion of other
prosecutors, as well as the performance evaluation and the
disciplinary procedures. |
SELECTED EVENTS03-04/02/2015 Venice Commission – Ukraine: Constitutional
reform to be tackled urgently | |
.png "Venice Commission – Ukraine: Constitutional reform to be tackled urgently") |
Kyiv – President of the Venice Commission Gianni
Buquicchio, Secretary of the Commission Thomas Markert, and the
Commission Member Hanna Suchocka visited Ukraine and met with the
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy
Yatsenyuk, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Groysman and
Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko to discuss cooperation in the
constitutional, judicial and electoral
fields. |
| |
.png "Freedom of Association – Launching of the Guidelines") |
Freedom
of Association – Launching of the Guidelines Geneva - the Venice Commission participated in a launch event of the Joint Venice Commission - OSCE /ODIHR Guidelines on Freedom of Association, hosted by Switzerland. The President of the Venice Commission, the Director of OSCE/ODIHR and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association took part in the event. Link to the Guidelines' text |
.png "World Conference on Constitutional Justice - Bureau") |
WCCJ
- Meeting of the Bureau Venice - The World Conference on Constitutional Justice, which has 95 member Courts, held the 9th meeting of its Bureau in Venice. Following the congresses in Cape Town (2009), Rio de Janeiro (2011) and Seoul (2014), the Bureau accepted the candidacy of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania to host the 4th Congress in Vilnius in 2017. The Bureau also examined the financial report and discussed activities in between the congresses. |
.png "Belgium - Electoral issues - 12th European Conference of the Electoral Management Bodies") |
Belgium-
12th European Conference of the Electoral Management Body
Brussels – The role of electoral management bodies in ensuring neutrality, impartiality and transparency in elections was the focus of an international conference which took place in the Palais d’Egmont, Brussels, Belgium, on 30-31 March 2015. |
.png "Tunisia - Venice Commission at work on implementation of the Constitution") The main topic of the discussions was the future co-operation between Tunisia and the Venice Commission, notably in view of the implementation of the Constitution adopted on 27 January 2014. |
Tunisia – Venice Commission at work on implementation of the Constitution -10/03/2015 Tunis - The President of the Venice Commission, Mr Gianni Buquicchio, accompanied by the Deputy Secretary of the Venice Commission, Ms Simona Granata-Menghini met in Tunis with the President of the Republic, the Speaker of the Assembly of People's Representatives, with the Minister of Justice, with the Minister responsible for the relations with the constitutional institutions and the civil society and with other high authorities of Tunisia. |
PUBLICATIONS |
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Opinions• Armenia - constitutional reform; •
Georgia - amendments to the Constitution;
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Georgia - amicus curiae on the non-ultra petita rule in criminal
cases; •
Hungary - on the recent amendments dealing with a number of
media issues; •
Italy - on the Citizen's initiative bill on public
participation, citizens' initiative, referendum and popular
initiative and amendments to the provincial electoral law on the
Province of Trento; •
Kyrgyzstan - amendments to the Constitution of
Kyrgyzstan; •
Republic of Moldova - on the Law on the People's Advocate;
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Peru - draft anti-discrimination
legislation; •
Ukraine - draft law on introducing changes to the Constitution
of Ukraine on the immunity of Members of Parliament and judges;
"lustration law".
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StudiesElectoral issues
Democratic institutions and fundamental rights
Compilations
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