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Carceral moderation and the Janus face of international pressure: A long view of Greece’s engagement with the European Convention of Human Rights

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Notes

  1. We use the standard definition of the term ‘regime’ to denote sets of ‘implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actors’ expectations converge in a given area’ ([1]: 185).

  2. In 2011, for example, an Azerbaijani representative who consistently praised Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev as well as prison conditions in that country, despite NGO criticisms of its human rights abuses and imprisonment of political opponents in particular, was elected president of the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture [7]. Similarly, in 2015, Saudi Arabia’s representative to the UNHCR was made chair of the five-member Consultative Group that appoints independent human rights experts as ‘Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council’ (see further [8]), despite widespread criticism of the Kingdom’s human rights record, including a rising number of judicial executions.

  3. On the ideational appeal of the policies of powerful international actors, see further [19].

  4. Beyond responding to the CPT, Greece has more generally complained in the past that her European counterparts ought to do more to mitigate the disproportionate burden placed on Greece as the principal entry-point of irregular migrants to the EU and has also suggested that Turkey has facilitated the heavy influx of irregular migrants to the country.

  5. A law that passed more recently, in late 2016, entrusted the Greek Ombudsman with the power to investigate cases of alleged abuse by staff in sites of incarceration around the country, with the proclaimed aspiration, at least in part, to promote adherence to the ECHR and ensure implementation of judgments passed on such cases by the ECtHR (see, e.g., [56]). It is too early at the time of writing to ascertain whether, and the degree to which, the new law itself will be applied in practice, let alone to evaluate its effectiveness. Greece’s past record in terms of investing in, or otherwise facilitating, inspection of carceral sites by domestic bodies does not allow much scope for optimism (see, e.g., [44]: 6–7).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK

    Sappho Xenakis

  2. Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

    Leonidas K. Cheliotis

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Correspondence to Sappho Xenakis.

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Xenakis, S., Cheliotis, L.K. Carceral moderation and the Janus face of international pressure: A long view of Greece’s engagement with the European Convention of Human Rights. Crime Law Soc Change 70, 37–56 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-017-9718-y

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