Robert
Schuman

Human Rights and the new definition of EUROPE

Chronology

1912. Robert Schuman, D Jur, opened a
barrister's office in Metz, in German-occupied Lorraine. Educated at the
universities of Bonn, Munich,
Berlin and Strasbourg, he was active in social and educational projects in
Alsace-Lorraine and Germany.

October 1912 Joint leader of German
delegation at the Leuven, Belgium conference of the Union for the
Study of international Law according to Christian Principles, presided by Belgian
jurist, Baron Deschamps, who later drafted the statutes of
the Permanent Court of International Justice, and in 1920 suggested the
creation of an International Criminal Court. Schuman, as a permanent
representative of the Union, later reported on a
work plan to the Law section of the learned Goerres Gesellschaft.

After World War 1, he was elected with large
majority of Lorraine population to the French Parliament.

1919-24 Major contribution to the drafting
and parliamentary passage of the 'Lex Schuman', a law code conciliating
earlier French and pre-war German legislation for Alsace-Lorraine,
safeguarding the rights of the population. It was called 'the greatest
act of legal legal unification attempted to then and, moreover,
accomplished with the approval of the populations concerned.' The key
principles were later applied in the Convention of Human Rights and the
European Community.

1945 Schuman returned as deputy, worked on
Constitutional Committee.

1946. 14 July, WS
Churchill in Metz where, standing next to Schuman, then Finance
Minister, Churchill gave his first European speech about Franco-German
reconciliation.

1947-8 Schuman became Prime Minister in
France’s worst period of political and revolutionary conflict.

1948, 30 Jan -2 Feb second meeting of Nouvelles
Équipes Internationales (one of the organisers of The Hague
European Congress in May). Participants included: Don Sturzo, Marc
Sangnier, plus Prime Ministers Robert Schuman (F), Pierre Dupong (Lux)
LJM Beel (NL) minister P-H Teitgen (F) (later rapporteur for the
Convention of Human Rights, the foundational document of the Council of
Europe) plus Germans including Konrad Adenauer. Resolution of European
unity, reaffirming the Lucerne Declaration of March 1944 (federal
European order and guarantees for human rights).

A January 1949 publication announced its aim, a European Union: Create
Europe or we will die! "Faire l'Europe ou mourir".

7-11 May1948The
Hague Congress.
Prime Minister
Schuman sent two ministers, P-H Teitgen (Defence) F Mitterrand
(Veterans) to what was a non-governmental conference. R Bichet, president of
NEI, three former French prime
ministers, including Paul Reynaud, attended. France and Belgium (Heyman)
were the only countries sending minister-level participants. Britain
sent a large delegation but no ministers. The German delegation (including Hallstein, Adenauer, Heinemann, Amelunxen,
Brentano) was led by Karl Arnold, Ministerpresident, NRW, British zone.

20 July 1948,Hague meeting of ministers, Western Union (Brussels Treaty
Organization),
Schuman’s Foreign Minister G Bidault proposed the creation of a
European Assembly (realized in the later Council of Europe) and a
customs and economic union (the later Coal and Steel Community
and the two Rome Treaty communities). As Foreign Minister in the
following governments, Schuman made such supranational institutions a
reality.

28
September 1948
Speech as Foreign Minister at United Nations General Assembly
in Paris. On Human Rights, he said, celebrating the centenary of the 1848 revolutions.
'France has the right to say on this subject that she possesses a
long tradition if not the copyright of its invention. In this year which
is for her as for many European countries a centenary of memories and
teachings, she will rejoice that a Declaration could be proclaimed here at
home, which in its turn will make its mark in the history of civilized
mankind.' For Europe, Schuman insisted (not without opposition) on
the creation of a system of human rights based on the supranational rule
of law,
rather than a more declaratory approach of the UN to Human Rights.

25-26
October 1948. France launched discussions on this process through the
Brussels Treaty organization (Western Union), creating an official
intergovernmental Committee for the Study of European Unity.

10
December 1948, United Nations General Assembly, meeting in Paris,
adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

1949
27-28 January,the Consultative Council of Western Union agreed
that a Council of Europe should be created consisting of a
Committee of Ministers and a Consultative body meeting in public.

5
May1949, London St James's Palace, Schuman signed the Statutes of the Council
of Europe for France. The aim of the Council of Europe,
originally to be called the European Union, was according to their
Statutes the 'safeguarding and realizing the ideals and principles
which are their common heritage' recognizing the 'rule of law and
that every person placed under its jurisdiction should enjoy human rights
and fundamental freedoms.' This step, said Schuman, 'created the
foundations of a spiritual and political cooperation, from which the
European spirit will be born, the principle of a vast and enduring
supranational union.' The Teitgen and Maxwell-Fyfe reports
provided means for member states to agree on a Convention.

16
May 1949, Strasbourg. In a speech at the
Festival Hall, Schuman explained how Europe is now defined by
countries which recognize the rule of law in the field of human rights and
fundamental freedoms. 'At the signature to the Statutes of the Council
of Europe, I recalled to everyone's mind that we did not yet have a
definition of Europe recognized by everybody. I believed that I was then
able to claim that that in thus laying the foundation of an organization,
Europe is now beginning to define itself, without the aid of scholars and
academics, who I fear, will never be able to agree amongst themselves.'
He defined this as 'having the European spirit.' Thus membership of
the Council of Europe and adherence to the principles of Human Rights
provides the definition of states who can become
candidate members of supranational communities.

to create a European Community based on supranational principles and open
to all free countries.

4
November 1950. Signature in Rome of the Convention of Human
Rights by Schuman and 11 other national leaders. This gave the new
Europe a clear legal criterion for defining geographically the new
borders of the Continent.