“2022 will be remembered as a year of terrible violence and seismic change in Europe”, writes the Secretary General of the Council of Europe at the start of her annual report, which was published on Wednesday 4 May on the eve of the 74th anniversary of the oldest and largest pan-European organisation.
Referring at length to the war launched by Russia against Ukraine on 24 February, Marija Pejčinović Burić recalled that the Council of Europe’s raison d'être is to achieve a closer union - the basis for peace - between its members while promoting the defence of human rights, democracy and the Rule of law.
These clear objectives expressed in the statutes, which were ostensibly violated by Moscow, led to Russia’s exclusion on 16 March, the Secretary General recalls: “To retain the Russian Federation in the current circumstances would strain words beyond meaning and stretch the Organisation’s credibility past the breaking point”.
It is also a “warning to all of us”, she continues, that “what has happened once could happen again”, because multilateralism is not based on the promises of States, but on their being kept.
Marija Pejčinović Burić therefore calls for a 4th Summit of Heads of State and Government, which would be an opportunity for the 46 member states of the Council of Europe to reaffirm their commitment to “build a stronger, more united, more coherent Council of Europe, acting in the interests of every individual and playing a central role in Europe’s democratic security”.
The 66-page report details the state of the Organisation’s progress on all the priorities corresponding to its new “Strategic Framework”: implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights, effectiveness of judicial systems, fight against discrimination, racism, corruption, disinformation, trafficking in human beings, etc.
This includes new themes such as artificial intelligence and defending the environment through law, as well as education for democratic citizenship, empowering young people, and strengthening their role in democratic processes.
Marija Pejčinović Burić also expresses strong concerns about the rise of phenomena such as online hate speech, threats to press freedom and the safety of journalists, and social inequality and poverty exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis.
Link to the report “Moving Forward 2022”: https://aeur.eu/f/1i6 (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)