A watchdog for human rights on the European continent, the Council of Europe decided on Friday to sanction Russia, banned from its main bodies, a first for an international organization since the invasion of Ukraine.
Posted at 4:43 p.m.
The Council, of which Russia and Ukraine are members and whose headquarters are in Strasbourg, thus reacted to an “armed attack” that its Secretary General, the Croatian Marija Pejcinovic Buric, had “firmly” condemned on Thursday, fearing “devastating consequences for the entire continent”.
The “suspension” of Russia’s “representation rights”, taken “with immediate effect”, was voted by an “overwhelming majority”, according to a diplomatic source, by the Committee of Ministers, the “executive” of the institution where the permanent representatives of its 47 Member States sit.
Turkey, which has repeatedly condemned the “unacceptable” invasion of Ukraine, however abstained in order not to “cut off the dialogue” with Moscow, according to its Foreign Ministry.
The decision of the Committee of Ministers means that Russian diplomats will no longer be able to participate in this body. Similarly, Russian parliamentarians will no longer be able to sit in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
Meeting since Thursday in “extraordinary” sessions, the Committee of Ministers, whose discussions were “deep, serious and devoid of glare” according to this same diplomatic source, nevertheless intends to preserve channels of discussion with Moscow.
Thus he was careful to note that “the suspension is not a final measure, but a temporary one, leaving the channels of communication open”. Even “suspended”, Russia therefore remains a member of the organization.
Article 8 of the Council’s statutes, the basis of these first sanctions, would have made it possible to exclude it purely and simply, as Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba would have liked, who called in a tweet to “fire” Moscow of all international institutions. But this option has not been adopted, at least for the moment.
“civilized world”
The Council even took care to specify that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), its judicial arm, remained outside the scope of this suspension. Russia, he stressed, remains bound by its commitments to the European Convention on Human Rights.
The ECHR will thus continue to offer a last resort to Russian citizens who are victims of the arbitrariness of their national jurisdictions, Moscow being the main provider of cases for the court, before Turkey and Ukraine.
For the Dutchman Tiny Cox, President of the PACE, faced with the “brutal violation of the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine by Russia”, it was necessary to send Moscow a “clear signal: if you violate your , you place yourself outside the civilized world”.
The organisation, created in 1949, “is there for the 830 million citizens of all of Europe, to promote human rights, uphold the rule of law and advance democracy”, he said. underline.
This is the second time in a few years that the Council of Europe has sanctioned Russia. The precedent dates back to 2014 when it annexed Crimea.
The Russian delegation within the PACE was then deprived of its right to vote. A symbolic measure to which Russia had responded by boycotting the sessions of this assembly and suspending the payment of its share to the Council’s budget, threatening the sustainability of the institution.
After five years of intense tension, the dispute had been settled and the Russian delegation had rejoined the PACE, to the great displeasure of the Ukrainian parliamentarians.
The French head of state Emmanuel Macron, among others, had worked on this settlement, while France held the rotating six-monthly presidency of the Council, multiplying gestures of appeasement towards his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.