Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic said in her annual activity report for 2019 that Council of Europe member states are uncertain about the human rights obligations they accepted.

“The image I get from my work is of a Europe circling a roundabout, uncertain about its direction and the human rights obligations which member states voluntarily agreed upon,” Mijatovic said and added that the coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating long-standing problems and emphasizing the weaknesses of Europe’s human rights protection system.

She warned of growing challenges to human rights standards and principles all over the continent. “In some cases, hostility to human rights as universal, indivisible and legally binding has increased, fueling a corrosive narrative that endangers the principles and standards on which Europe has been built over the past seven decades,” the report said and added that anti-semitism, Islamophobia and discrimination of Roma have reached alarming levels.

She expressed concern about the way European countries handled migrants and asylum-seekers and warned of gender inequality across Europe.

“Human rights defenders and journalists continued to work in hostile environments in a growing number of European countries. Legislation has been misused to detain and prosecute them, while public discourse by some political leaders has legitimised smear campaigns, threats and intimidation”, the report said and added that there were attempts by some national authorities to use their leverage to influence and instruct the judiciary.

The Commissioner also warned about the risks that unregulated uses of digital technologies and artificial intelligence pose to human rights, in particular privacy, equality, and freedom of expression and assembly.

“At the moment, states’ attention, resources and efforts are rightly devoted to heading off the COVID-19 pandemic and to protecting the health and lives of millions of people in Europe. Once the pandemic is under control, however, states will have to redouble their efforts to solve long-standing shortcomings in law, practice and discourse that are so damaging to human dignity and human rights,” Mijatovic said.