What use is the Council of Europe?
George Monbiot, in today’s Guardian, on the deafening silence of European politicians as Serbia takes the chairmanship of the Council of Europe, the body, entirely independent of the European Union, which runs the European Court of Human Rights: the reason, he says, is that everyone is afraid of having their own human rights record called into question:
But who will cast the first stone? There is scarcely a government that does not have something to hide. The UK, Germany, Italy, Macedonia and even Sweden have been assisting the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” programme, kidnapping people and delivering them to states that will torture them on the US’s behalf. Poland and Romania seem to have let the US use secret detention centres on their soil. Austria, Germany and the UK rely on worthless diplomatic assurances to justify handing refugees to governments that torture prisoners. Poland warns that “teachers who reveal their homosexuality will be fired from work”. France supports African genocidaires. Spain repatriates unaccompanied children. Ukrainian police torture sex workers and force them to confess to crimes they did not commit. The UK bans peaceful protest and continues to occupy the country it illegally invaded.
Lift a stone to throw at Serbia anywhere in Europe and you will find something unpleasant cowering there. Better to leave it on the ground. The price of being left alone by other states is the tolerance of mass murder. When I discussed these matters with Terry Davis, he admitted that he had “not heard anyone in the Council of Europe suggest any form of action against Serbia as a result of its failure to hand over Mladic”. The only action they could take, he claimed, is to expel Serbia from the council. Once you have become a member, you have the right to chair it when your turn comes up. I am not convinced this is true. The council’s statute says that a member which has seriously violated human rights and fundamental freedoms “may be suspended from its rights of representation”. Surely this could apply to its right to be represented as chairman of the council?
The price of being left alone has been the tolerance of mass murder
Meanwhile, a hard-line nationalist has been elected as speaker of the Serbian parliament.
Update: In today’s paper, Terry Davis, current secretary-general of the Council of Europe, defends Serbia’s membership, saying that excluding the country would only hurt ordinary people and that the Serbian war criminal, Vojislav Seselj, has taken the same position of opposing Serbian CoE membership.
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