As delivered by Marija Pejčinović Burić, Secretary General of the Council of Europe

 

Prime Minister,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

It is a great pleasure to be here in Iceland –

My first visit to this country since it took up the Presidency of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers earlier this month.

I have been asked to speak today about the future of Europe.

In truth, that future is undetermined.

The range of recent and ongoing challenges facing governments and citizens is lengthy, complicated and serious.

They have included a financial crash –

A global pandemic –

And now the return to armed aggression on a scale that we have not seen since 1945.

These have been set against the backdrop of increased and extreme populism and nationalism that have emerged in parts of our continent –

And which often feed off the major problems facing our societies and the perceived inability to resolve them.

The disruption to trade and supply caused by COVID-19 –

And the limits placed on access to both food and fuel as a consequence of Russia’s actions –

Are now pushing up inflation, dragging down wages, and threatening people’s standards of living.

What these factors have in common is that they are cross-border in nature.

They cannot be solved by governments working in isolation.

But need action at the international level too, by means of multilateral cooperation.

Europe’s political architecture includes a range of international organisations –

Each performing its specific function.

These include the European Union, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.

Our Organisation’s mandate is to protect and promote common standards in human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

And I intend today to restrict my comments to these issues.

There is certainly enough to say.

And some of it is in fact positive.

In the 73 years since the Council of Europe was created, it has grown from just 10 member states then, to 46 today.

Each of these has ratified the European Convention on Human Rights and is required to implement it –

Just as they are required to implement and execute the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights –

Which interprets the Convention –

And to which every individual in Europe –

Including every individual in Iceland –

Has the ultimate right of appeal.

Within this common legal area, human rights have greater definition and protection than at any time, or on any continent.

This is death-penalty free zone –

Where same-sex activity is legal –

And where the conditions for arrest, prosecution and detention are robust, fair and humane.

These – and so many other changes that have taken place over recent decades –

Have transformed people’s lives for the better –

And we owe that to the European Convention and to the Council of Europe.

Sometimes it is said that human rights are theoretical.

They are not.

They are very real, and they touch our lives every day, even when we don’t realise it.

This is true even in a very advanced country like Iceland.

Cases from this country, brought before the Court, have for instance had an important impact in relation to resolving medical disputes and on free speech reforms.

It’s important to realise that this continent-wide process has not stopped.

Our human rights may be written in black and white.

But the circumstances in which we live are not.

In our fast-moving, tech-driven, modern societies, the Convention is still being interpreted and applied in light of the issues we face.

It is, as the Strasbourg Court says, a living instrument –

It continues to shape our everyday lives in ways that are important –

Often unseen –

And should never be taken for granted.

The same is true for the specific instruments that we have developed to address particular problems –

And which do so by drawing from the Convention’s principles.

These cover everything from the prevention of torture, cybercrime and human trafficking –

To the protection of women from violence, children from sexual exploitation, and national minorities from discrimination.

Our European Social Charter also plays a vital role –

With its rights to health, education and social security once again showing their value during the lockdowns required in many countries due to coronavirus.

Moving forward, we are already at work on new instruments that will apply human rights standards to some of the defining challenges of our times.

We are, for instance, developing new tools on human rights and environment –

Recognising the ways in which increasing environmental harms undermine people’s rights to life, private and family life and property.

And we have been working on a range of initiatives that address human rights and artificial intelligence.

Because we recognise the range of ethical issues that come with AI.

How do we stop algorithms from discriminating against groups or individuals?

What happens when low-skilled jobs are replaced by machines?

How can we prevent – or assign responsibility – for attacks on election systems, or technical failures including, for example, driverless cars?

These are serious questions.

And among the tools that we have been developing, we are currently at work on a cross-cutting instrument –

One that will help governments ensure that AI upholds fundamental rights –

And does not undermine them.

These priorities sit alongside others in the Council of Europe’s Strategic Framework –

The implementation of the European Convention and the execution of the Strasbourg Court’s judgments, of course.

But also measures to ensure freedom of expression, both online and offline –

To ensure non-discrimination and the protection of vulnerable groups –

To lead the fights against social inequalities and poverty –

Inequality, racism, xenophobia and discrimination on grounds of religion –

As well as against corruption, money laundering, and cybercrime –

And human trafficking –

And to ensure independent, efficient and resilient judicial systems –

Alongside support for civil society, including human rights defenders.

We are also supporting education for democratic citizenship and youth engagement –

So that future generations understand the value of democracy –

And are better equipped to defend it.

At our recent Ministerial Sessions, member states have endorsed all of this.

And restated their commitment to the values that underpin the Council of Europe –

Including the multilateralism that ensures its progress.

All of this is good.

But I am not dismissing the clear and present dangers –

There are recent examples of where our values have not held, but have in fact been pushed aside.

In many of our member states, freedom of expression is under threat from restrictive legislation and efforts to intimidate, undermine and gag the media.

Civic space is shrinking as laws are used – and misused – to prevent the freedom of assembly that is the lifeblood for any healthy democracy.

And, in some places, we have witnessed a reactionary backlash against the hard-won rights of minorities and vulnerable groups, who have sometimes become the targets of violence.

This is what happens when politics pulls at the threads of what we have fought so hard to create over the course of more than seven decades –

And threatens the institutions that uphold it.

Take the Russian Federation -

Whose brutal, illegal and ongoing aggression against Ukraine is the most extreme example of its break with European standards.

What should be our response to this?

Last February, the Council of Europe moved quickly to exclude the Russian Federation from our Organisation.

We are the only international organisation that has taken that step.

And we were right to do so.

Russia’s violent pivot away from our common values was a clear breach of our Statute –

And its impact can be measured in the deaths, destruction and loss of livelihoods that have affected millions of people across Ukraine.

To have kept Russia within our Organisation would have strained our credibility past breaking point.

The Russian Federation does not respect our standards.

And some lines simply cannot be crossed.

Now our priority is to do everything that we can to help Ukraine and its people.

That’s why we are supporting the Office of the Prosecutor General in the investigation of gross human rights violations on the ground –

Why we have adapted our joint Action Plan for Ukraine to help its government apply our standards in light of the realities facing the country right now –

And why we will be ready to help the country move forward with a specific package of measures tailored to the realities we find when the violence does eventually end.

More than this, we are also working with those member states who have received the largest share of refugees from Ukraine –

To help them provide the high standard of support that they wish to –

And our Development Bank is providing grants to help with this process too.

All of this has the support of our member states.

They stand in solidarity with Ukraine.

Their unity and determination gives meaning to our values –

In the most difficult of situations –

And it is testament to the underlying strength of the system that they have built, together –

And its ongoing capacity to resist the drift away from the values codified in the European Convention.

This, to be clear, is a matter of political will.

In May of next year, they will have another opportunity to demonstrate their strength.

Thanks to the hard and seamless work of our Organisation’s Italian and Irish Presidencies –

And its new Icelandic Presidency too –

The Council of Europe will have its Fourth Heads of State and Governments meeting, here in Reykjavik, next May.

It will be for our member states to decide on the content of that meeting.

They might consider what further support they can provide to Ukraine as it rebuilds –

What we might do to help those other countries directly exposed to Russian aggression as they continue on the path of European integration –

Often from outside the EU.

And how we can work more closely with civil society actors from Russia and Belarus –

So that we empower those who do not agree with the politics of aggression practiced by their national political leaders –

And build on the first meeting of our new Contact Group on co-operation with representatives of Belarusian democratic forces and civil society.

The recent report of our High-level Reflection Group addresses these and other issues on which member states might wish to reflect.

More broadly, this will be an opportunity to take a clear-eyed view on the future of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe –

To ensure the fullest commitment to the European Convention –

And thereby halt and reverse the democratic backsliding that it is all too apparent and all too harmful.

In our recent meeting, Prime Minister, you made a comment that has stayed with me.

You said that you would like this country to host a Summit whose declaration deepens member states’ commitment to the Council of Europe’s values –

And does not simply reaffirm them.

That it should show an Organisation created in the aftermath of World War II –

But relevant to the challenges of today.

I could not agree more.

Europe is in peril.

But its future is not written or predestined.

This will be determined by the will of its citizens -

And of its governments and international organisations.

They have turned the tide of political extremes before.

With the tools at their disposal, and the political will required, they are more than able to do it again.

Let next Spring’s Summit in Reykjavik be a central moment in writing the next, positive chapter in Europe’s rich and extraordinary history.

Thank you.