Warsaw, 16 October 2012 — At its inaugural meeting at Frontex’s Warsaw headquarters today, the agency’s newly-formed Consultative Forum on Fundamental Rights elected its first two Co-Chairs.
Ms Aydan Iyigüngör, of the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) and Stefan Kessler of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) will serve for one year as Co-Chairs representing EU Agencies and NGOs respectively.
Frontex Executive Director Ilkka Laitinen said: “Nowhere in Europe can you find a higher or more professional level of expert knowledge on Fundamental Rights than in our Consultative Forum. Not only respect for Fundamental Rights, but their active promotion, is a firm cornerstone of the agency’s strategy and this forum reinforces that commitment.”
The FRA’s Aydan Iyigüngör also commented positively on the forum’s creation.
“The composition [of the Consultative Forum] is a strength in itself,” she told journalists on the sidelines of the meeting. “You have a variety of civil society organisations, international organisations and EU agencies all bringing their knowledge on board from different dimensions of border management.”
The creation of a Consultative Forum on Fundamental Rights was enshrined in a 2011 revision to Frontex’s founding regulation and will meet at least twice a year.
Although the forum’s role is advisory and it has no decision-making powers, it will deliver an annual report on Frontex’s implementation of its Fundamental Rights obligations. It will also seek to have as practical a role as possible, as the JRS’s Stefan Kessler was keen to emphasise. Underlining that the forum would address specific issues and scrutinise shortcomings, he also promised to be as inclusive as possible.
“There are many organisations that are not represented on the Consultative Forum, which we will try to include as much as possible so that we get a comprehensive overview of what is happening at the borders,” he said, “so that we can really bring refugees’ and migrants’ voices to the table […] to influence the policies of the agency and of the border guards of the member states.”
Speaking on behalf of the European Commission, Belinda Pyke said: “I warmly welcome that the Consultative Forum is now up and running and that the Fundamental Rights Officer has been delegated. These measures, and the ongoing implementation of other guarantees contained the revised Frontex Regulation, are a welcome and concrete sign that the Agency is fully committed to ensuring the respect of fundamental rights, both in its own work, including the joint operations it coordinates, and by the Member States, when participating in those operations.”
Organisations represented on the Consultative Forum are: Amnesty International European Institutions Office; Caritas Europa; Churches' Commission for Migrants in Europe; Council of Europe; European Asylum Support Office; European Council for Refugees and Exiles; European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights; International Catholic Migration Commission; International Commission of Jurists; International Organization for Migration; Jesuit Refugee Service; Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights; Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants; Red Cross EU Office; United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.