Focus on the Council of Europe with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The mandate of the Council of Europe is to protect and promote human rights, the rule of law and democracy, explains Marija Pejčinović Burić.
Marija Pejčinović Burić is Secretary General of the Council of Europe. We often confuse the Council of Europe and the European Council. She is the guest of European microphone.
franceinfo: explain to us the difference between the Council of Europe and the European Council?
Marija Pejcinovic Buric : First of all, the Council of Europe is the first institution which was created at the end of the Second World War in 1949, and which has since been located in Strasbourg. The mandate of the Council of Europe is to protect and promote human rights, the rule of law and democracy.
And the European Council in relation to the Council of Europe?
So there is another organization that was created a little later, the European Union. And within the European Union, there is a part which is in fact the summit of Heads of State and Government, which is called the European Council, and which constitutes 27 Member States.
And today, how many member states in the Council of Europe, and what do you serve?
We are 46 member states, we cover almost all of Europe, geographically speaking. We had until last year also Russia, which was part of it at the time, so there were 47 of us. They were expelled because of the brutal aggression against Ukraine. And we still don’t have Belarus, which has never abolished the death penalty, which is one of the prerequisites for becoming a member of the Council of Europe. So what is it for? It is about this work so that the countries move towards more unity, so as not to have the differences that lead to wars.
It must be said that you are the only international institution to have expelled a member state?
Exactly…
There is also the European Court of Human Rights, the ECHR?
If people are familiar with one of the institutions of the Council of Europe, it is the European Court of Human Rights. And the unique fact of this Court which is unique in the world is that all the citizens of the Member States can have recourse to this Court, to settle the disputes which have not been satisfied at the national level. And the judgments taken by the European Court are binding on the Member States, that is what is important.
For example for the French, until cassation, if the cassation is not good, we go to the ECHR. At the state level, there are still a lot of criticisms.
Back to the Council of Europe. You have to deal with peace and human rights, but what you are doing is not binding. You can’t force anyone?
Since the creation in 49, there are 223 treaties or conventions which are legal texts and which are normally translated into national legislation, and for example here, in France, or in Germany or in Moldova, we are talking now, and after, you Go post what you think should be posted. It is also partly because there is the European Convention on Human Rights with its article 10 on freedom of the press. There is freedom of expression, freedom of association, for example, that people can get together, there is the prohibition of torture, there is the abolition of the death penalty. So all that is the product of the treaties, which the member states have accepted in the national legal framework, the Council of Europe treaties.
It means somewhere, you’re a bit of a decompression chamber. Do you have to go to your house to get to something else?
You are right, it is not that all the Member States apply all the legal texts to the letter, but for that, our experts go to all the countries regularly, and take stock of the situation, to know how the convention is applied. So we draw up conventions, we monitor their application, and we help the Member States to apply them in the best possible way.
Marija Pejčinović Burić, a week from now is the Council of Europe summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. Because Iceland is a member state of the Council of Europe, what will happen?
This summit is taking place because we have this war and this aggression on Ukraine. Everything is played out at the geopolitical level, and there are also questions, for example, artificial intelligence. We wonder more and more how it will shake up human rights, democracy.
So we have to see how, from the point of view of artificial intelligence, with all the positive sides of AI, we can also defend fundamental rights. On the other side, there is climate change. We must also ask ourselves: is the right to a healthy environment a human right? In my opinion, it is. So you have to see these new challenges.