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The Venice
Commission met on 13 and 14 June
2008 at the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni
Evangelista in Venice.
The Venice Commission
adopted:
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The 76th Plenary Session of the
Commission will take place in Venice on 17-18
October
2008. |
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| Constitutional
co-operation
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The Venice Commission played an
important role in protecting the right to freedom of
assembly in Armenia. After the
state of emergency was declared in Armenia in
early March 2008, and amendments to the law on
rallies were passed which effectively prolonged
the state of emergency imposing too strict
limits on the exercise of freedom of assembly,
the Commission and ODIHR met with the Armenian
authorities in April 2008 with a view to
discussing the necessary furhter amendments to
the law. Throughout April and May, the
Commission and ODIHR provided their assessment
of Armenia proposals for changes. The amendments
were finally considered by the VC and ODIHR to
be satisfactory, and were adopted by the
National Assembly on 11 June 2008. The
Commission has insisted with the
Armenian authorities that a positive assessment
of the level of protection of the right to
demonstrate in Armenia depends on the manner in
which the law will be implementated, the law
itself not being sufficient in this
respect.
The Commission also assessed
certain draft amendments to the criminal code of
Armenia concerning offences linked with the
freedom of assembly. The Commission criticised
them and invited the Armenian parliament not to
adopt them.
The
Commission also assisted the Central Election
Commission of Bosnia and
Herzegovina in relation to the law on conflict of
interest in governmental bodies.
This law needs technical improvement. It also
raises the question of the division of
competences between the State and the entities.
The Commission is ready to pursue its
co-operation on this matter.
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At
its XIVth Congress, the Circle of Presidents of
the Conference of European Constitutional
Courts, adopted a Resolution welcoming
the excellent co-operation between the European
Constitutional Courts and the Venice
Commission and sought the continuation
and further deepening of this co-operation for
the benefit of constitutional justice in Europe
(Vilnius, 3 June 2008).
The Resolution referred to the
wide range of services, which the Venice
Commission provides to the courts, in particular
the publication of the Bulletin on
Constitutional Case-Law, the database CODICES
(www.CODICES.coe.int), the
Venice Forum, opinions on the legislation on the
courts, amicus curiae opinions; the continued
updating on information on the Courts; as well
as the organisation of conferences and seminars
with the Courts. The Circle of Presidents also
recalled that already since the XIth Congress in
1999, the Venice Commission regularly produces
special issues of the Bulletin on Constitutional
Case-Law on the topics chosen for the Congresses
of the European Conference and provides
information on the candidates for membership
with the Conference.
Many
constitutional courts and equivalent bodies
(constitutional councils, supreme courts with
constitutional jurisdiction) have already
registered for the first World
Conference on Constitutional Justice
(Cape Town, 23-24 January 2009). However,
some courts still haven't received their
invitation. If your Court has not been invited
but this Newsletter reaches you, please contact
the Secretariat by e-mail venice@coe.int
or by fax +33 388 41 37 38.
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| Elections and
Referendums |
The Venice Commission was very
active in the framework of the 21 May 2008
parliamentary elections in Georgia. In
particular, an expert of the Venice Commission
assisted the Central Election Commission of
Georgia on legal and technical issues during six
weeks, from 28 April to 5 June 2008. Seminars
were organised on electoral disputes with judges
in charge of these disputes (6 May 2008), as
well as a workshop on the holding and
supervision of elections, directed towards NGOs
involved in the observation process (on 7 May
2008).
During their sessions of
12-14 June 2008, the Council for Democratic
Elections and the Venice Commission adopted
joint opinions with OSCE/ODIHR on
electoral law of Azerbaijan and
Bosnia and
Herzegovina. The opinion on the electoral law
of Azerbaijan underlines that, in
spite of some progress, important
recommendations of the Venice Commission and
OSCE/ODIHR were not followed, in particular
concerning the composition of election
commissions. Furthermore, good faith
implementation of the electoral code remains
crucial.
The Commission also
adopted a report on dual voting of persons
belonging to national minorities. It concludes
that dual voting is an exceptional measure,
which has to be within the framework of the
Constitution, and may be admitted if it respects
the principle of proportionality under its
various aspects. This implies that it can only
be justified if:
- it is
impossible to reach the aim pursued through
other less restrictive measures which do not
infringe upon equal voting
rights;
- it has a transitional
character;
- it concerns only a
small
minority.
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