Back Conference of the Chairpersons of Parliamentary Committees on Foreign Affairs of the Council of Europe Member States

Sofia , 

As delivered

 

What is Democratic Security?

Victor Hugo once remarked that you can resist an invading army, but you cannot resist an idea whose time has come. “Democratic security” is one such idea.

The core premise is that countries which adhere to democratic principles, rule of law and human rights are less likely to go to war with each other, or to experience violent internal strife.

The concept is not new. Many attribute its origins to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant who argued, in his Essay on Perpetual Peace, published in 1795, that armed conflict would becoming increasingly rare wherever it required citizens’ consent.

150 years later, following the Second World War, the concept was enshrined in the Statutes of the Council of Europe, and immediately afterwards, in the European Convention on Human Rights: a ground-breaking treaty which gave legal protection to the fundamental rights and freedoms of all people on the European soil, in order to help prevent the return of fascism.

Since then, the Convention has been integral to a number of international peace agreements including the 1995 Dayton Peace Accord, the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and the 2007 Ahtisaari Plan for Kosovo*.

The concept of democratic security, which has been at the centre of the deliberations of the Heads of States and Government at three consecutive Council of Europe Summits – in 1993, 1997 and 2005 - has been translated into operational practice and tools. 

What the drafters of all these texts understood is that promoting and protecting universal human rights, ensuring through the rule of law the security for our citizens in the full respect of fundamental rights and freedoms, as well as checks on unrestrained state power are essential in keeping peace and stability, in preventing conflicts and in facilitating economic and social progress.

For the purpose of our work today, I would like to refer to the first and second reports of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.

In those reports, the concept of democratic security is broken down into several pillars, or building blocks. Let me mention just a few :

  • the existence of efficient and independent judiciaries;
  • the right to freedom of assembly, of association and of expression;
  • the functioning of democratic institutions;
  • the fight against major threats to democratic societies: terrorism, corruption, organised crime, financial crime,        trafficking in human beings, cybercrime …   
  • and the development of inclusive democracies.

The components are interlinked. Together, they foster trust between citizens and their political institutions; promote tolerance between different groups; allow a society to settle its disputes peacefully; and they allow for a dynamic exchange of ideas, so that our societies do not stagnate. 

Am I saying that hard conceptions of security are redundant?

Of course not. “Hard security” continues to be vital – based on traditional models of deterrence and military capacity. But alone it will no longer guarantee stability.

Anyone searching for proof of the umbilical link between democracy and security need only look across Europe today.

 

Democratic security in today’s Europe

Let me give you some very current examples.

Take the surge in violent extremism. In Europe terrorists now attack us with devastating success – by using our own citizens, from our own cities. Terror is increasingly “home grown”.

Consider, also, the atmosphere of hate and intolerance that has swept across many of our communities. In its most recent study, the Council of Europe’s European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) found a dramatic increase in anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and online hate speech across the continent.

Both are the consequence of fragmentation in our societies, and the reasons are complex: globalisation; Syria’s civil war and what it means for radicalisation; prolonged austerity, widening inequality, poorly managed diversity, and so on.

But the fact remains that division flourishes most where democratic life is undernourished.  Where shared, civic values are weak or missing. Where certain groups are alienated and marginalised, and mistrust, therefore, is rife.

The refugee crisis is further proof of the need for democratic security. In many of the European cities absorbing high numbers of newcomers, the mood is increasingly tense. How will we avoid more of the violence and vigilantism that we witnessed in Stockholm last week, when a mob of masked men took to the streets, beating up immigrants and handing out leaflets threatening further attacks? In the long term, only through policies of inclusion and integration in order to overcome resentment and mistrust.

A third example: Ukraine. The Council of Europe’s position is very clear: Russia’s annexation of Crimea is illegal, and it was deeply destabilising. But this should not prevent us from seeing that Ukraine’s troubles began with widespread disillusionment with its institutions.

And lasting stability will only be possible if Kyiv can deliver a renewed political settlement, based on an inclusive constitution, stronger human rights protections and the decentralisation of power. We continue to work closely with the Government in pursuit of these aims. 

We see parallels in the Republic of Moldova, too. Many Moldovans are protesting against the “Billion dollar bank Fraud” in which very large sums of money mysteriously disappeared from three of the country’s banks, epitomising the systemic corruption which has kept the nation weak and its people poor. Enough was enough, and public unrest ensued.

Now, without far-reaching reform to remove power from the hands of oligarchs, and to rid the courts of political interference, further upheaval will be extremely difficult to avoid.

What these different examples show us is that, in Europe today, the threats to our stability no longer come predominantly from the outside. Many come from within our own political systems and our own societies. Corruption. Loss of trust in state bodies. The segregation of minorities. Fear of diversity. From a security perspective, this internalising of threats is perhaps the biggest shift of our time.

 

The Council of Europe

And so the need for a strong democratic governance by states, inclusive societies and the rule of law could not be more stark.

For this reason our Secretary General, Thorbjørn Jagland, has reasserted democratic security as the overriding objective of the Council of Europe.

We are the only intergovernmental organisation to sweep the length of the European continent, encompassing 47 European states. Created after the Second World War, we are the guardian of the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Social Charter, and home to the European Court of Human Rights.

We work to keep Democratic Security at the top of the agenda in three key ways.

First, we promote and defend the international standards which all European states have signed up to.

Second, we need to identify the trends which threaten democratic security across the continent.

Third, we need to build inclusive societies.

 

On my first point, to defend international standards:

You know from your own work that, in moments of pressure, and when nationalist forces are on the rise, governments may be tempted to act unilaterally, in ways which risk departing from our shared values.

We see this in response to the changing terror threat. Our job is to remind our members that actions which undermine human rights and the rule of law make us weaker, not stronger – because they play directly into the hands of the terrorists who wish to discredit our democracies – as we saw in the aftermath of September 11th, when grave human rights abuses were committed in the hunt for Al Qaeda.

So the Council has been spearheading initiatives that will empower states to go after and fight terrorists, but doing so together, and without undermining fundamental freedoms. None more so than our ground-breaking treaty to clamp down on foreign terrorist fighters, which criminalises early preparations for acts of terror for the first time in international law. 

Responding to the refugee crisis, too, it is essential that states hold firm to international standards.

For this reason we compiled and distributed the fundamental obligations governments have to anyone stepping foot in Europe – so that there can be no doubt. As you know, new legislation to reform asylum systems is now coming thick and fast from European governments – for example on new powers for police to confiscate refugees’ assets at the border, and longer waiting times before refugees can be reunited with their families. We are watching these developments very carefully to ensure that any such legislative developments accord with the Convention and the case law of the Strasbourg Court. The Secretary General has appointed a new Special Representative on Migration precisely to help states ensure that political reactions today do not create judicial headaches tomorrow.  

 

On my second point, to identify the trends which threaten democratic security across the continent :  

These are the recurring issues which are not confined to a small minority of countries, but which appear in democracies old and young – and are therefore pressing problems, which require a collective response.

In the Secretary General’s report last year, two stood out. The first is widespread weaknesses in Europe’s judiciaries.

Clearly within Europe there are states which boast some of the world’s most respected court systems. However serious problems can also be detected in over a third of member states. In many cases, only poor safeguards exist against corruption and public trust in the system is therefore low.

The second trend is worsening conditions for free media. Nearly half of European states are now failing to guarantee the safety of journalists and, more and more, we see disproportionate tactics employed to suppress dissent. Even in states which boast generally plural media environments, there are problems with monopolies and an unhealthy relationship between media and political elites.

While these trends are different, the consequences are the same: if judges and journalists can’t do their job, who is holding the powerful to account?

So the Council of Europe has ramped up our activity on both fronts. We are, for example, expediting a pan-European Action Plan to improve the independence of their judiciaries. I also encourage you to look at our Platform for the Protection of Journalists, which exists thanks to the strong impulse of the Parliamentary Assembly.  

No other tool like it exists: it is an online portal where journalists can sound the alarm, and, crucially, the governments in question are expected to respond.

 

On my third point: the need to make our democracies inclusive:

‘Living together as equal in dignity’ has long been one of our mantras, and policies to facilitate it are more important than ever. Our work on social rights is hugely important here, as well as our paradigm shift on diversity, as we call it the “diversity advantage” (diversity is not a threat, but as an opportunity o be democratically managed). And, as we all know, education is key. One of our flagship initiatives for 2016 will be a set of new competences to help teach young people across Europe how to live as democratic citizens: able to respect core, shared values on the one hand, and different cultures and beliefs on the other.

These initiatives will, I hope, continue to be met with enthusiasm from our member states – and of course our Bulgarian Chairs, who I would like to thank for giving Democratic security the spotlight today.

It is, as I said, an idea whose time has come. You as parliamentarians have a unique opportunity to ensure that, whenever there are debates about security, democracy is in the front of our minds.

With your outward looking perspective, you also understand that we have a shared responsibility to deliver democratic security. This is what the Heads of State and Government of the first Council of Europe Summit, in Vienna in 1993, expected from you when they declared:

“We are resolved to make full use of the political forum provided by our Committee of Ministers and Parliamentary Assembly to promote, in accordance with the competences and vocation of the Organisation, the strengthening of democratic security in Europe.”

This is why I very much welcome the opportunity to join you here in Sofia to discuss how we can continue building a peaceful, stable and inclusive Europe on the foundations of liberty and law.

* All references to Kosovo, whether to the territory, institutions or population, in this text shall be understood in full compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 and without prejudice to the status of Kosovo.