Dick Marty
Encyclopedia
Dick Marty is a Swiss
politician
(FDP.The Liberals
) and former state prosecutor
of the canton of Ticino
. He is a member of the Swiss Council of States
(since 1995), and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
.
from the University of Neuchâtel
with the thesis: "The role and the power of the Swiss judge in the application of penal sanctions" .
, Germany
, responsible for the section on Swiss law.
, in which post he was specially noted for his energetic activities fighting organized crime
and drug abuse
. For his achievements in the area of drug legislation, he received in 1987 an Award of Honor of the United States Department of Justice
and a special award of honor by the International Narcotic Enforcement Officers Association. In 1989 he was elected a member of the cantonal executive in Ticino, where he was director of the finance department, and in 1992 additionally held the office of president, which rotates among the members. In 1995, upon being elected to the Swiss Council of States for Ticino, he resigned from his executive post and has since worked part-time as a legal and economic consultant.
In the Council of States he has been member of key commissions, including the Finance Commission and Economy and Taxes Commission, and took an active part in getting the new Swiss constitution through parliament.
Marty acted as Special Rapporteur
for the Assembly's Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee on the topic of euthanasia
. His report and draft resolution, published in September 2003, called on Council of Europe members to collect empirical data on assisted dying, to promote debate and analysis of the evidence, and to consider whether legislation should be brought forward to exempt doctors from prosecution for assisting suicide in certain strict conditions. His stance proved controversial and the report was criticised by a number of organisations such as the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations and the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics, and was termed 'Mr Marty's muddle' and accused of 'superficiality' and 'selectivity' by John Keown, professor of Christian ethics at Georgetown University
in Washington, DC.
The Committee subsequently adopted a formal Opinion prepared by Kevin McNamara
which criticised several of Marty's findings and conclusions and sought to replace the call for governments to consider legislation to legalise assisted dying with a resolution merely to 'report back to the Parliamentary Assembly for further consideration'. McNamara's amendments also drew criticism from organisations such as the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, and Keown's criticism of Marty's report was itself criticised by Guy Widdershoven of Maastricht University.
In the event, Marty's report, even amended, was rejected by 138 votes to 26. Marty said he hoped the issue would come before the Assembly in the future.
In 2005, Marty was appointed to lead an investigation by the Council of Europe into alleged illegal CIA secret prisons in Europe. Marty is planning to use satellite images and aviation logs - among many other sources of information - to find out whether the "rendition" of terror suspects for possible torture, or illegal secret detentions, have taken place in any of the Council of Europe's 47 member states. These activities could be a violation of European human rights standards. In June 2006 a report released by Marty on behalf of the Council of Europe announced that evidence showed that 14 European states had indeed assisted in the perpetration of such abuses.
Marty published the second part of this work on June 8, 2007, named Secret detentions and illegal transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member states: second report.
involving Kosovo prime minister and former Kosovo Liberation Army
political leader Hashim Thaçi
.
Kosovo's leading politicians reacted strongly on Marty's report. Kosovo's acting president, Jakup Krasniqi, has called the report "racist towards Albanians". Prime Minister Thaçi accused Marty of being "an opponent of Kosovo's independence" and called the report "politically motivated", "not based on facts", with the "goal to damage the newly-created state of Kosovo, Kosovo’s image, to question the election process, creation of institutions and Kosovo’s European future". According to Thaçi, it was "an attack directed against two states, Kosovo and Albania and against all Albanians". As reported by several international, Serbian, Kosovan and Albanian news agencies, in an interview for Albanian TV Klan on December 24, 2010, Thaçi threatened to publish a list of Albanians who helped Dick Marty write the report which accuses him of organ trafficking in Kosovo.
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
(FDP.The Liberals
FDP.The Liberals
FDP.The Liberals is a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It is the joint-largest party in the Federal Council, third-largest party in the National Council, and second-largest in the Council of States....
) and former state prosecutor
Prosecutor
The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
of the canton of Ticino
Ticino
Canton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Named after the Ticino river, it is the only canton in which Italian is the sole official language...
. He is a member of the Swiss Council of States
Swiss Council of States
The Council of States of Switzerland is the smaller chamber of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, and is considered the Assembly's upper house. There are 46 Councillors....
(since 1995), and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
.
Education
Marty holds a doctorate in lawLaw
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
from the University of Neuchâtel
University of Neuchâtel
The University of Neuchâtel is a French-speaking university in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The University has five faculties and more than a dozen institutes, including arts and human sciences, natural sciences, law, economics and theology. The Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences is the largest...
with the thesis: "The role and the power of the Swiss judge in the application of penal sanctions" .
Max Planck Institute
From 1972 to 1975, Marty worked at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in FreiburgFreiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, responsible for the section on Swiss law.
State prosecutor
In 1975, Marty was nominated state prosecutor of TicinoTicino
Canton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Named after the Ticino river, it is the only canton in which Italian is the sole official language...
, in which post he was specially noted for his energetic activities fighting organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
and drug abuse
Drug abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...
. For his achievements in the area of drug legislation, he received in 1987 an Award of Honor of the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
and a special award of honor by the International Narcotic Enforcement Officers Association. In 1989 he was elected a member of the cantonal executive in Ticino, where he was director of the finance department, and in 1992 additionally held the office of president, which rotates among the members. In 1995, upon being elected to the Swiss Council of States for Ticino, he resigned from his executive post and has since worked part-time as a legal and economic consultant.
In the Council of States he has been member of key commissions, including the Finance Commission and Economy and Taxes Commission, and took an active part in getting the new Swiss constitution through parliament.
Council of Europe
Since 1998 he has been a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe where he is a member of the Monitoring Committee, and second vice-chairperson of the Political Affairs Committee, with further positions in several subcommittees.Marty acted as Special Rapporteur
Rapporteur
Rapporteur is used in international and European legal and political contexts to refer to a person appointed by a deliberative body to investigate an issue or a situation....
for the Assembly's Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee on the topic of euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
. His report and draft resolution, published in September 2003, called on Council of Europe members to collect empirical data on assisted dying, to promote debate and analysis of the evidence, and to consider whether legislation should be brought forward to exempt doctors from prosecution for assisting suicide in certain strict conditions. His stance proved controversial and the report was criticised by a number of organisations such as the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations and the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics, and was termed 'Mr Marty's muddle' and accused of 'superficiality' and 'selectivity' by John Keown, professor of Christian ethics at Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
in Washington, DC.
The Committee subsequently adopted a formal Opinion prepared by Kevin McNamara
Kevin McNamara (politician)
Dr. Joseph Kevin McNamara, KSG is a British Labour Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament for almost 40 years.-Early life:...
which criticised several of Marty's findings and conclusions and sought to replace the call for governments to consider legislation to legalise assisted dying with a resolution merely to 'report back to the Parliamentary Assembly for further consideration'. McNamara's amendments also drew criticism from organisations such as the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, and Keown's criticism of Marty's report was itself criticised by Guy Widdershoven of Maastricht University.
In the event, Marty's report, even amended, was rejected by 138 votes to 26. Marty said he hoped the issue would come before the Assembly in the future.
In 2005, Marty was appointed to lead an investigation by the Council of Europe into alleged illegal CIA secret prisons in Europe. Marty is planning to use satellite images and aviation logs - among many other sources of information - to find out whether the "rendition" of terror suspects for possible torture, or illegal secret detentions, have taken place in any of the Council of Europe's 47 member states. These activities could be a violation of European human rights standards. In June 2006 a report released by Marty on behalf of the Council of Europe announced that evidence showed that 14 European states had indeed assisted in the perpetration of such abuses.
Marty published the second part of this work on June 8, 2007, named Secret detentions and illegal transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member states: second report.
Organ theft in Kosovo
On December 14, 2010, Marty passed a report for adoption to the Council of Europe alleging inhuman treatment of people and killing of the prisoners with the purpose of removal and illicit trafficking in human organs in KosovoKosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
involving Kosovo prime minister and former Kosovo Liberation Army
Kosovo Liberation Army
The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA was a Kosovar Albanian paramilitary organization which sought the separation of Kosovo from Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s....
political leader Hashim Thaçi
Hashim Thaci
Hashim Thaçi is the Prime Minister of Republic of Kosovo, the leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo , and former political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army .-Early life and education:...
.
Kosovo's leading politicians reacted strongly on Marty's report. Kosovo's acting president, Jakup Krasniqi, has called the report "racist towards Albanians". Prime Minister Thaçi accused Marty of being "an opponent of Kosovo's independence" and called the report "politically motivated", "not based on facts", with the "goal to damage the newly-created state of Kosovo, Kosovo’s image, to question the election process, creation of institutions and Kosovo’s European future". According to Thaçi, it was "an attack directed against two states, Kosovo and Albania and against all Albanians". As reported by several international, Serbian, Kosovan and Albanian news agencies, in an interview for Albanian TV Klan on December 24, 2010, Thaçi threatened to publish a list of Albanians who helped Dick Marty write the report which accuses him of organ trafficking in Kosovo.
Other
Besides his political work, he has been, since 1996, president of Tourism Switzerland; he is the president of the Swiss Scoutism Foundation.External links
- www.DickMarty.ch – Personal homepage, mainly in Italian
- Council of EuropeCouncil of EuropeThe Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
:- Profile page
- Chronology briefing note – Marty's investigation on CIA secret detentions
- Marty's draft report – Inhuman treatment of people and illicit trafficking in human organs in Kosovo