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Identification
In 1949, the Council of Europe was established as
one of several attempts to unite Europe and prevent
the divisions that in the 1930s had evolved into a
world war. The creation of the United Nations
(1945) and NATO (1949) had the same objective.
In terms of the division of labour, the Council of
Europe was charged with leading an ideological
battle against the communist world; the European
Coal and Steel Community (1951 – later the EC
and eventually the EU) and the OECD (1961)
were assigned responsibility for the economic
battle; and NATO was given responsibility for the
military battle.
The Council of Europe’s task from the beginning was to serve as a forum for cooperation on demo - cracy and human rights. The purpose of the Coun cil is not to create a united European democracy whereby the movement which in the 17th century led from local areas to unified nations can be repeated at a higher level: from nations to union. In each nation, the democratic institutions should be developed, with due respect for the individual nation’s right to preserve its own democratic tradition. It is not crucial whether there are one or two chambers, whether the electoral systems reflect elections by majority vote or by proportional representation, or whether the nation’s unity is represented by a monarch or a president. In 1950, in extension of the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the Council of Europe adopted its own human rights convention, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The goal was not just to formulate the rights, which are a condition for participating in political life and for enjoying protection against government invasion of privacy (ban against discrimination, requirement for swift and fair trial, and freedom of expression, assembly and religion). What was equally important was that the Convention was given substance by the establishment of two institutions: the Commission on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights. In 1997, the Court of Human Rights was restructured, and has subsequently been alone in enforcing the Convention. A problem for human rights is that the state which is meant to protect the individual’s freedom is often the same state which threatens the said freedom. If the rights of the individual are violated, the violation will perhaps simply be repeated at a national court. This problem is manifested in the old distinction between right and justice. The European Court was intended to be a body that stood above the Member States and a body which the Member States committed themselves to respecting. With the Convention, a potential conflict arose between national and European legislation. In 1953, Denmark acceded to the Convention, which until 1992 was implemented in Denmark in the same way as other treaties. It was not until 1992 that a law was passed in Denmark incorpo - rating the Convention in its entirety, which means that its provisions can now be claimed to be Danish law. This has clearly increased the impact of the Convention in Denmark.
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This page is part of the electronic publication "The Danish Democracy Canon"