the Council of Europe is concerned about the “backsliding of democracy” and calls for a “return to peace” on the continent

The Council of Europe warned on Friday 5 May against “the decline of democracy in many areas” on the continent, particularly as a result of the war in Ukraine. Marija Pejcinovic Buric, the general secretary of the organization which brings together 46 countries, insisted on “the profound impact of Russia’s continued brutal and unlawful aggression against Ukraine”. The latter is a member of the Council of Europe, from which Moscow was expelled immediately after the invasion of its neighbour.

This aggression “caused immense suffering”she continued, referring to “the hundreds of thousands of dead, the millions of refugees, the terrifying tales of torture, rape and loss”. “We aspire to a return to peace: a lasting peace based on justice”she said in her annual report released on Friday.

“We therefore call on the Member States to demonstrate their determination so that [la Russie] be the first and the last country to free itself from our values ​​and leave our organization, that democracy stops going backwards and that this trend is reversed.”

Marija Pejcinovic Buric, Secretary General of the Council of Europe

quoted by AFP

More broadly, she pointed out in her report “the increase in acts of violence targeting journalists, the use of surveillance to track and intimidate them”the laws used in a way “abusive” For “limit activism and the freedom of association and assembly of civil society” or “excessive use of force against protesters”. The leaders of the member states of the Council of Europe, watchdog for human rights on the European continent, are due to meet on May 16 and 17, for a summit in Reykjavik (Iceland).