Russia could exit the council if punitive measures taken against it for annexing Crimea are not removed
The Council of Europe building in Strasbourg, northeastern France, May 5 2019. Picture: FREDERICK FLORIN / AFPThe Council of Europe, a pan-continental rights watchdog, on Sunday marked its 70th anniversary at a time of mounting populism and a standoff with Russia as well as doubts over its own role in the modern world.
Britain’s World War 2 leader Winston Churchill was the first to suggest the creation of such a body back in 1942, at the height of the war, when he expressed the hope that “the European family may act unitedly as one under a Council of Europe”. Perhaps better known than the council itself is its judicial arm, the European Human Rights Court, which is itself celebrating its 60th birthday. It is a tribunal of final resort for those who feel their fundamental rights are being denied by a member state.
“We have in a way constituted the new civilised Europe after World War 2” with the European Convention on Human RIghts going “much further than the universal declaration of human rights,” said Jagland. After Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, the council’s parliamentary assembly deprived the Russian delegation of its voting and other rights. In retaliation, Russia suspended its annual €33m payment to the Strasbourg-based council — about 7% of the body’s total budget — and has not participated in sessions of the council’s parliamentary assembly.
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