AN Alton councillor will be promoting human rights and democracy across Europe after being appointed as a member of the Council of Europe.

Robert Saunders, an East Hampshire district and town councillor for Alton, will sit on the Congress – the local government section of the authority.

The Council of Europe was established in Strasbourg in 1949, largely at the instigation of Winston Churchill, with the objective of promoting democracy, human rights and the rule of law throughout Europe after the Second World War.

It has grown over the years and now covers 47 countries including Russia and the European areas of the former Soviet Union. The Congress, founded in 1994, meets twice a year in Strasbourg.

Commenting on his new role, Mr Saunders said: “I am honoured to have been selected to serve on an international organisation that Britain did so much to found 65 years ago.

“The Congress has helped to strengthen local democracy in countries which, for historical reasons, have suffered dictatorship and lack of independence in recent centuries, and I am eager to play my part in this ongoing work.”

Mr Saunders explained that the Congress (of local authorities and regions) meets twice a year in plenary session in the spring and autumn.

He added: “Members of national delegations are also invited on fact-finding missions to member countries to observe how elections are conducted. The most recent example of which was local elections in Ukraine last weekend.”

Top of the agenda, during last week’s autumn session in Strasbourg was to look at the role of local and regional authorities with regard to the current refugee and migrant crisis.

In the account of the meeting online, Congress noted that “in the absence of a common migration and asylum policy, the large-scale influx of refugees is testing to the limit the solidarity between European states in terms of the fair distribution of migration flows and the resources deployed to accommodate these refugees in conditions worthy of the values promoted by the Council of Europe and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities”.

Also that “alongside a tremendous upsurge of citizen solidarity, this humanitarian emergency also prompts inward-looking attitudes, violent acts of xenophobia and racist remarks, all of which are phenomena against which the Congress has campaigned for many years through its reports, its appeals to the member states of the Council of Europe, and its practical action on the ground”.

It resolutely observed that “the states of Europe must assume shared responsibility for accommodating the refugees on their territory in total respect for the right to asylum in force and to human dignity”.

In urging that “Europe must play a full part in taking in the Syrian refugees, only six per cent of whom are on European territory (excluding Turkey), while Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan are accommodating more than four million”, Congress also resolved that “faced with this humanitarian emergency, local and regional authorities, regardless of their geographical position in Europe, must play a key role in the arrangements for accommodating the refugees, in order to ease the pressure on the border towns and cities and those closest to the Mediterranean and Syria”.

And it said that this role should be “reflected in practical terms on the ground by the provision of public buildings converted to accommodate refugees, political and material support to associations specialising in migrant reception, facilities to help ensure access to administrative formalities, health care and education”.

From a local perspective, Mr Saunders confirmed that East Hampshire District Council recognises that it has a “shared responsibility” and is working with the Local Government Association to ensure a co-ordinated response since the resources that local authorities can offer will differ.

He said, for example, that some councils will have more direct control over housing stock.

The next Congress meeting that Mr Saunders will attend on behalf of East Hampshire District Council, but at no expense to the district council or to the council tax payer, will take place in Strasbourg from May 24-26.