Wednesday, August 25, 2021

IN THE SECOND CATEGORY, THE COMMISSIONER FOR ADMINISTRATION

 Filenews 25 August 2021 - by Vassos Vassiliou



Cyprus, and in particular the Office of the Commissioner for Administration, remained without substantial progress in the field of human rights protection, as evidenced by a recent reassessment of the Office by a UN Sub-Committee on compatibility with the Paris principles.

The re-evaluation was carried out by the Sub-Committee on Accreditations and specifically the Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) which gave Cyprus a credit of 18 months in order to comply and submit a new re-evaluation application, if it wishes to move to category A.

Among the vulnerabilities identified are the appointment/selection of each Commissioner by the President of the Republic, the responsibilities of the Commissioner, the adequate funding of the Office, its financial autonomy, the staff and the pluralism that must exist.

The Subcommittee suggests, however, that the Commissioner's term of office should be renewable only once.

In order to be considered compatible with the Paris Principles, an NHRI (Office of the Commissioner) should have as broad a mandate as possible, clearly defined in a constitutional or legislative text, specifying its composition and sphere of competence. Moreover, it should fulfil specific guarantees of independence and pluralism, in particular in relation to (a) its composition, in order to ensure the pluralistic representation of civil society involved in the promotion and protection of human rights, (b) its structure and in particular its adequate and independent funding, and (c) its appointment which should ensure its effective independence.

The Paris principles adopted by un General Assembly Resolution, no. 48/134, date. 20 December 1993 concerns the legal status of the National Human Rights Institution (NHRI). The main task of the NHRI (in this case the Office of the Commissioner for Administration) is to continuously monitor developments related to the human rights regime at national and international level, to inform public opinion of the possible risks of violations, to cooperate with civil society and, above all, to advise the competent bodies of the executive, legislative and judicial authorities on issues of protection and promotion of human rights.

An application for accreditation of the Commissioner's Office in relation to his compliance with the Paris principles was submitted by the former Commissioner for Administration to the SCA in 2015 by the previous Commissioner for Administration. At that time, the Office of the Commissioner for Administration was accredited with B Status, i.e. with a lack of compliance with the Paris principles.

The degree of compliance with the Paris principles is the basis on which NHRI (the Commissioners) are assessed – and regularly re-evaluated– in an accreditation process.

Based on this assessment, they are assigned status A (full compliance) or status B (poor compliance), which determines their ability to participate in a series of mechanisms of the UN, the Council of Europe and the European Union. In this way, NHRI is considered to be involved in shaping the international human rights landscape and promoting their protection in every country. Currently, NHRI (Offices of Commissioners) accredited with status A already operate in most EU member states, while the remaining member states are considered to be in a process of either aligning existing institutions with the Paris authorities, or creating new ones that will meet the necessary requirements (official data on the accreditations of all NHRIs are attached).

Especially with regard to the gaps that had been identified since 2015 (appointment / selection of each Commissioner by the President of the Republic, responsibilities of the Commissioner, the adequate funding of the Office, its financial autonomy) do not seem to have been filled until today, even if some steps were taken, and therefore the Office of the Commissioner was given an eighteen-month extension to proceed with the required actions indicated.

Although it is recognized that the way of selection / appointment of a Commissioner and generally the guarantees of appointment are stronger than those applicable to other officials of the Republic of Cyprus, however, the Sub-Committee considers that the procedure provided for in the legislation is not sufficiently broad and transparent, as it does not require the promotion of the position (so that it can be claimed) while there are no clear and uniform evaluation criteria, nor is there widespread consultation in the selection and appointment process.

The Sub-Committee invited the Commissioner to call for the formulation of a process, which includes:

>> The broad new publication of the post.

>>In maximising potential candidates from a wide range of social groups and academic qualifications.

>> Promote broad consultation and/or participation in the application, examination, selection and appointment process.

>> The evaluation of applicants on the basis of predetermined, objective and published criteria.

>> The selection of persons to serve in their personal capacity and not on behalf of the organizations they represent.

As far as competences are concerned, the Sub-Commission suggests that the relevant legislation should be amended in order to give the Commissioner explicit powers, both for the promotion and for the protection of human rights, with the aim of creating a society where human rights are perceived and respected in a wider way. It should also be ensured that staff represent the diversity of society, in particular in matters of gender, origin and minority status.