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The Council of Europe must react to violations by members – starting with Russia
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In recent years, several crises have shaken the Council of Europe – the continent’s leading human rights organisation – and undermined its credibility.

Whether Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 or the massive crackdown on democratic institutions and fundamental freedoms in Turkey, these crises have involved defiant responses by member states to criticism by the Council (CoE). These have included withholding financial contributions and threatening to leave the organisation, as well as denying abuses and refusing to stop them. In turn, the Council has failed to respond effectively and timely to several instances of major violations of obligations by member states.

This week, the Council’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) is holding its summer session. The ability of the CoE to effectively address serious and persistent violations of obligations by its member states is under scrutiny by civil society actors once again – and the Council’s problems have been exemplified by the way it dealt with the recent crisis in its relations with Russia.

After difficult deliberations over Russia’s threats to depart from the Council in 2019-20, PACE abolished most of the restrictive measures it could adopt in respect of national delegations. This solution caused a great deal of controversy, as Russia was able to return to the Assembly despite failing to implement almost all the provisions of PACE’s resolutions regarding its violations of international law in respect of Ukraine and its citizens. The credibility of the organisation suffered a severe blow.

To address this problem, in 2020 the Council introduced a new procedure for a coordinated response by the main CoE bodies to situations “where a member state violates its statutory obligations or does not respect the standards, fundamental principles and values upheld by the Council of Europe”. This includes a “high-level dialogue” with an offending member state with a view to eliminating the violations, and a possibility of its suspension or expulsion in case this dialogue does not lead to substantive change.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/the-council-of-europe-must-react-to-violations-by-members-starting-with-russia/