Russia withdraw from Council of Europe

Russia withdraw from Council of Europe

Facing a vote by the Council of Europe, Russia has chosen to withdraw as of Tuesday March 15^th. Members of the continent’s leading human rights watchdog had been expected to vote in favour of the expulsion.

This is the second such dubious honour achieved by the country, which is now the most sanctioned state. Prior to their withdrawal only one other country had withdrawn or had been expelled. Back in 1969 Greece withdrew, a time when it was under military dictatorship, re-joining in 1974.

The withdrawal will do little harm to the government, however it does mean that Russian citizens will be able to turn to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the judicial arm of the Council of Europe, as a last resort after exhausting their country’s courts.

The Russian Foreign Ministry blamed NATO and EU member states of “abusing their majority” in the organisation to turn it “into an instrument of anti-Russian policy, abandoning Equal dialogue and all the principles on which this pan-European structure was founded.”

Secretary General, Ms. Pejcinovic-Buric, was served with a notice of withdrawal by the Russian Federation. “In such circumstances our country will not remain in the Council of Europe.”

“Those who are forcing us to take this step will bear all the responsibility for the destruction of the common humanitarian and legal space on the continent and for the consequences for the Council of Europe itself, which without Russia will lose its pan-European coordinates,” it added in a statement.

The Council of Europe had already temporarily suspended Russia on 25 February after it launched its military invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s decision to withdraw came just before member states approved a resolution that “unanimously considered that the Russian Federation should no longer be a member State of the Organisation,” the Council of Europe said in a statement.

“Through their actions in Ukraine the Russian authorities deprive the Russian people of the benefit of the most advanced human rights protection system in the world, including the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights and our vast convention system,” it said.

“We express solidarity with the Russian people who, we firmly believe, share democratic values and aspire to remain part of the European family where they belong.

“We remain determined to use all means at our disposal to provide support, relief and legal remedies to the Ukrainian people in their fight against the aggressor and to continue the pursuit of peace based on justice and international co-operation,” it added.

The resolution was adopted on Wednesday following an extraordinary meeting of the body’s Committee of Ministers, which stressed that “the Russian Federation ceases to be a member of the Council of Europe as from today, after 26 years of membership.”

According to statistics from the ECHR, a fifth of judgments delivered in 2021 concerned Russia while nearly a quarter of the more than 70,000 cases that were pending on 31 December 2021 had been lodged against the Russian Federation.

The move by Russia to withdraw before the inevitable humiliation of being booted from the Council of Europe, has become a rather familiar story as sanctions are ramped up.

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