It is the end of twenty-six years of membership. The Council of Europe, guarantor of the rule of law on the continent, officially excluded Russia, Wednesday, March 16, because of its war launched against Ukraine.
The exclusion was decided on Wednesday morning during a “extraordinary meeting” of the Committee of Ministers, the organisation’s executive body, following an advisory vote by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
A few hours before this election, Moscow had taken the lead in officially announcing that it was slamming the door of the Council of Europe, an organization based in Strasbourg and to which the country had joined in 1996. In any case, it was suspended from it on February 25, the day after its offensive in Ukraine.
Consequence of this expulsion: Russia will leave the European Convention on Human Rights, depriving its 145 million citizens of access to the European Court of Human Rights. The latter announced immediately that she was suspending “examination of all requests” against Russia, “while waiting to examine the legal consequences of this resolution on the work of the court”.
The flag of the Russian Federation was lowered around 1.30 p.m. from its mast in front of the Council, where only the flags of the forty-six other member states now fly.
The implications defined later
The Committee of Ministers will later define the concrete implications of this exclusion, when it resumes its meetings on this subject next week, the organization said.
“It’s sad to have to exclude a country after twenty-six years of membership”PACE President Tiny Kox said in a separate statement. “But it was necessary and I’m glad we dared to do it. »
It is only the second time that the institution has been faced with such a scenario: Greece had proceeded in a similar way, leaving the Council of Europe before being expelled from it in 1969 under the dictatorial regime of the colonels. She had rejoined him in 1974.
In 2014, Russian PACE parliamentarians were disenfranchised after Russia annexed Crimea. After five years of tension, the Russian delegation had rejoined the PACE, to the great displeasure of the Ukrainians.