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Speech by Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe

Chairman of the Permanent Council, Ambassador Ferrol,
Secretary General Ramdin,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is an honour to address the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States. And to do so as you celebrate twenty-five years of the Inter-American Democratic Charter.

Its first article says:

“The peoples of the Americas have a right to democracy and their governments have an obligation to promote and defend it.”

The Council of Europe was built on the same conviction. That shared conviction brings me here today: to strengthen cooperation between our two organisations.

Together, our two organisations represent 1.7 billion people in close to 80 countries. That is about one in five people on earth.

Just think about it for a moment. One in five people on earth. Two in five seats at the United Nations. Imagine if they spoke with one voice.

Mr Secretary General, excellencies,
Our mandates may differ. But what unites us is stronger than the forces trying to pull us apart.

Today, the Council of Europe counts 46 member states, from Iceland to Türkiye, from Portugal to the South Caucasus and Ukraine.

Together they form a unique common legal space, built on the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights, and a system of standards and treaties.

Many of those treaties are open to the world. Thirty OAS member states are parties to at least one Council of Europe convention. Canada, Mexico and the United States are also observer states with the Council of Europe.

Many see this moment only as a rupture. I also see an opportunity.

I have just come back from New York, where we opened our first Permanent Observer Office to the United Nations.

Chairman, Mr Secretary General, this was still just an idea when we met at the UN General Assembly in New York a year ago.

The international legal order was already under tremendous pressure. But none of us could have imagined how deep the rupture would go.

Venezuela in your region. Greenland in ours. They both showed that the world we knew was gone.

This order was never perfect. It was too often applied with double standards. Many countries felt it was not built for them.

But every threat or use of force that goes unchallenged writes the rules of what comes next.

This is why our response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine matters beyond Europe. At the Council of Europe, we are working on accountability.

Countries from the Americas took part as observers in the negotiations on the convention establishing the Claims Commission, and Costa Rica has expressed its readiness to support the Special Tribunal.

But the challenge goes beyond Ukraine. Across our societies, people are turning away from democracy.

For more than a decade now, more countries have been moving backwards than forwards. For the average person in the world, democracy has slipped back to where it stood in the late 1970s.

Half a century of progress, almost erased. For the first time in a generation, there are more autocracies in the world than democracies.

All of this comes as both our regions head to the polls.
This year, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador and the United States vote. Next year, France, Spain, Italy and Poland.

Where democracy weakens, peace becomes fragile. So we need to rethink our understanding of security.

Democratic security is about keeping people safe, defending their rights and keeping institutions strong.

I am convinced, and I know you are too, that this is where cooperation between the Organization of American States and the Council of Europe can make a real difference.

When the multilateral system cannot fully deliver, regional organisations can and must help fill the gap.

Fifteen years ago, the OAS and the Council of Europe signed a Memorandum of Understanding to reinforce our cooperation on democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

Today, our experts work side by side, from protecting election observers to ending violence against women.

Now is the time to take our cooperation to the next level.

A forum for action

We need to build coalitions for action. And we will need others with us.

We will need Africa. We will need Asia.

When the wider multilateral system struggles to act, regional organisations can keep cooperation moving. They know their regions and have experience we can share. Yet we still work too often alongside one another, without a regular place to identify where we could act together.

Our two organisations already represent 1.7 billion people. Imagine what we could achieve with others at our side.

That is the idea behind a Regional Multilateralism Forum.

Secretary General Ramdin and I first explored it online in January, and returned to it just before this session. I also discussed it this week with the Chairperson of the African Union Commission.

The first Regional Multilateralism Forum could take place in Paris early next year, bringing together the heads of the Council of Europe, the Organization of American States, the African Union and other regional partners ready to join us.

CLOSING

This is what this moment demands.

The future of our two regions is being written now.

The rupture is already here. We do not need another one to prove that we need each other.
Twenty-five years ago, your Charter said it for the Americas. It holds everywhere.

Every person has a right to democracy. Every government has an obligation to promote and defend it. So let us defend it together.

And I now look forward to your questions.

Thank you.