Seite - 11 - in Austrian Law Journal, Band 1/2020

ALJ 2020 Benedek 10 public statements, reports or personal visits. The Commissioner has a particular focus on the protection of human rights defenders. For this reason, she or he closely monitors the human rights situation on the ground. The Commissioner can act quickly on human rights issues by statements or country visits and reports, opinions and by mobilising the media.31 She or he can appear as a third party before the Court as it happened in a recent Grand Chamber case against Turkey.32 Unfortunately, the Commissioner, in addressing human rights backsliding of countries, can only sound the alarm and mobilise action as well as help in individual cases. In reaction to the problems of the backlash affecting several democracies in Europe the Secretary General became more involved, which mostly happened behind the scenes by way of silent diplomacy. As his successes remained limited one way of speaking up was the Annual Report on Democracy, Human Rights and the Rule of Law published for the years between 2014 and 2018. For example, the annual report on democracy, human rights and the rule of law of 2018, without mentioning a single state, draws attention to the disturbing outcome of populism, which had been a focus of the 2017 report, and identifies alarming threats to the institutions of human rights protection, like the judiciary, key human rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association as well as threats to democratic institutions and to inclusive societies which the report found to be undermined at the national and regional levels. It calls for a re- commitment to shared values and the defense of the institutions.33 Another tool of the Secretary General is the inquiry procedure under Article 52, according to which a member state on request by the Secretary General has to provide “an explanation of the manner in which its internal law ensures the effective implementation of any of the provisions of the Convention.” This possibility has so far has been used only a few times, but could be used more actively. For example, in the context of the emergency measures taken by numerous states in response to the COVID-19 crises without formally resorting to the notification of a state of emergency according to Article 15 ECHR it has been suggested to use this tool to meet loopholes in the system of supervision of derogations. This has already been recommended by PACE in its Resolution 2209 according to which, inter alia, the Secretary General should open an inquiry under Article 52 in relation to any state which derogates from the Convention.34 C. Role of civil society, media and academia Today, civil society faces a shrinking space in Europe as can be seen from the situation of human rights defenders in Azerbaijan, Turkey and the Russian Federation in particular. One example was the trial of Oyub Titiev, the head of the human rights centre of the Russian human rights NGO “Memorial” in Grozny, who after denouncing forced disappearances and torture was put on trial on fabricated charges of possession of narcotic drugs in early 2018. His case received much 31 Muizniek, supra note 17, at 11 et seq. 32 Hearing of the Grand Chamber of Sep. 18, 2019 on pre-trial detention of Selahattin Demirtas, Selahattin Demirtas (No. 2) vs. Turkey, appl. no. 14305/17. 33 Report by the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjoern Jagland, State of Democracy, Human Rights and the Rule of Law, Role of institutions, Threats to institutions, Council of Europe, May 2018. 34 Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Resolution 2209 of Apr. 24, 2018 on State of emergency – proportionality issues concerning derogations under Article 15 ECHR; see Kushtrim Istrefi, Stefan Salomon, Entrenched Derogations from the European Convention on Human Rights and the Emergence of Non-Judicial Supervision of Derogations, Vol. 22 AUSTRIAN REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL AND EUROPEAN LAW, 25 et seq. (2017), 2019.