News

03.07.2008

Сonference of Prosecutors General of Europe closed

The Conference of Prosecutors General of Europe on “The Role of Public Prosecution in the Protection of Human Rights and Public Interests outside the Criminal Law Field” has been closed in St. Petersburg. While concluding the Conference, a final document indicating major issues considered during the Conference and ways of solving them was presented to all the participants.

The St. Petersburg Conference confirmed the conclusions of the previous conferences held in Budapest and Moscow on the variety of functions of public prosecution services in the European countries resulting from national legal and historic traditions. The Conference participants noted that all the states had their sovereign rights to independently determine institutional and legal mechanisms to exercise their powers for the protection of human rights and public interests in compliance with the principles of functioning of a legal state and their international obligations.

While drawing conclusions, the Conference noted that there were no common European legal norms and rules regarding the tasks, functions and organization of public prosecution services. At that, in all legal systems public prosecution services had to become an instrument to protect human rights, safeguard the law and defend the legal state and rule of law.

The Conference concluded that the Council of Europe member states could be nominally identified into two main groups on the grounds of areas of competence of the public prosecution services. First group includes states where the public prosecution services have no powers outside the criminal law field. The second group includes states where public prosecution services have some or extensive powers outside the criminal law field, namely civil, labor, family, pension, housing and electoral law. At the same time, particular attention is paid to the protection of social rights and interests of vulnerable groups such as minors, disabled persons and persons with very low income. In the opinion of the Conference, public prosecutors play a crucial role in this issue.

The Conference concluded that those functions of the public prosecution services were carried out in accordance with the main task of public prosecutors to act on behalf of society and in the public interest. While carrying out these functions, the principle of separation of powers shall be fulfilled and no undue intervention in the activities of prosecution services is allowed. In this regard, the participation of public prosecutors in all judicial proceedings should ensure lawful, well-grounded and fair decisions made by the court.

According to the representatives of the European public prosecution services, different areas, forms and means of protection of human rights by public prosecutors exercising their authorities outside the criminal law field could be used as the positive experience by the member States where the public prosecution services have such authority.

The delegates invited the Consultative Council of European Prosecutors to base its work on the role of public prosecution in the protection of human rights and public interest outside the criminal law field on the conclusions and other materials presented during the Conference.

In conclusion, Director General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs of the Council of Europe Philippe Boillat delivered a brief report. He underlined the social importance of the role of public prosecution outside the criminal law field and necessity to be guided by the Convention on Human Rights in those activities.

“The Conference underlined the growing need in our societies to protect effectively the rights of vulnerable groups”, stressed Philippe Boillat. He also indicated the necessity to ensure access to justice and equality of the parties in judicial proceedings.

Lastly, Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika made his closing speech. He highlighted the necessity to exchange the positive experience of the public prosecution services of the European States for the purposes of the protection of legal rights and interests of citizens. “A public prosecutor represents the state”, stressed Yuri Chaika when talking about the necessity to impose special supervision over respect of the rights of vulnerable groups.

To conclude his speech, Prosecutor General of Russia cordially thanked the delegates for their active participation in the Conference.
 

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