Offener Brief: Den Euro­pa­rat retten

Als Reaktion auf die völkerrechtswidrige Besetzung der Krim durch Russland und dem Beginn seines Krieges in der Ostukraine, wurde der russischen Delegation in der Parlamentarischen Versammlung des Europarates (PACE) das Stimmrecht entzogen. Der Kreml versucht nun mit einer Resolution, die kommenden Dienstag in der PACE Versammlung verabschiedet werden soll, diese Sanktionen aufzuheben. Über 100 Personen des öffentlichen Lebens warnen davor dringend in einem offenen Brief, den auch Rebecca unterzeichnet hat.     

Open Letter  

We, the under­si­gned, are stron­gly con­cer­ned about the pos­si­ble demise of the Council of Europe, which can take place very soon. 

In response to Russia’s illegal annexa­tion of the Crimea and mili­tary aggres­sion in Eastern Ukraine the Council of Europe sus­pen­ded the voting rights of the Russian dele­ga­tion. In its turn, Russia has turned to black­mail, having sus­pen­ded mem­bership fees to the Council of Europe and boy­cot­ting par­ti­ci­pa­tion in the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly.

In order to tri­um­phantly return to the PACE in January next year without imple­men­ting demands con­tai­ned in a number of PACE reso­lu­ti­ons, Russia and its sup­por­ters decided to act by the principle: if you can not change the policy of the Council of Europe, change its rules. If changes to the current sanc­tions rules are made, it will be vir­tually impos­si­ble to apply sanc­tions in the future AGAINST ANY MEMBER STATE .

Such changes, resul­ting in the uncon­di­tio­nal return of Russia to PACE , will have the fol­lo­wing nega­tive impact on the Council of Europe and situa­tion with human rights in Europe:

1) by allo­wing Russia to succeed in black­mai­ling, the CoE will com­pro­mise and dis­credit itself. A weak Council of Europe will lose its aut­ho­rity and influ­ence in those parts of Europe where it is needed the most;

2) without the capa­city to apply sanc­tions, the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Council of Europe will become a tooth­less orga­ni­za­tion, strip­ping itself of the only tool which could moti­vate an offen­der of the CoE’s decla­red values – demo­cracy, human rights and rule of law – to correct its poli­cies;

3) it could trigger a full-scale crisis in the orga­ni­za­tion.

We call upon the ruling elites of all CoE Member States not to allow the demise of the orga­ni­za­tion. History will judge harshly those who give in to black­mail from unde­mo­cra­tic socie­ties where the rule of force is above the rule of law.

Signed by:

Toomas Hendrik Ilves, fourth pre­si­dent of Estonia (2006–2016)
Petras Aušt­re­vičius, Member of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, Lit­hua­nia
Eit­vy­das Baja­ru­nas, Ambassa­dor-at-Large for Hybrid threats, Lit­hua­nian MFA ,
Andrius Kubi­lius, Member of Par­lia­ment, Prime Minis­ter of Lit­hua­nia (1999–2000, 2008–2012)
Beatriz Becerra, Member of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, vice-chair of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment Sub­com­mit­tee on Human Rights, Spain
Rebecca Harms, Member of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, Germany
Anna Maria, Corazza Bildt, Member of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, Sweden
Ana Gomes, Member of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, Por­tu­gal
Fran­tišek Kopřiva, Deputy, Czech Pirate Party, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive to PACE , Czech Repu­blic
Jan Lipavsky, Member of the Par­lia­ment, Chamber of Depu­ties, Czech Repu­blic
Werner Schulz, former MP and MEP , Germany
Hanne Seve­rin­sen, Danish Hel­sinki Com­mit­tee, Former MP and PACE , Denmark
Marie­luise Beck, Former Bun­des­tag Member, Germany
Danylo Lub­kivsky, Former Deputy Foreign Minis­ter, Ukraine
Markus Meckel, Former Foreign Minis­ter of the GDR ; Vors. Stif­tungs­rat Bun­des­stif­tung Auf­ar­bei­tung, Germany
Paweł Kowal, Former member of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, Poland
Sonja Adel­heid, member, Bündnis 90/​die Grünen, Germany
Hannes Adomeit, Senior fellow, Insti­tute for Secu­rity Policy, UKIEL , Germany
Willem Alders­hoff, former head of unit, Euro­pean Com­mis­sion, Analyst inter­na­tio­nal affairs, Belgium
Jes­sikka Aro, Jour­na­list, Finland
Anders Åslund, Senior Fellow, Atlan­tic Council, Swedish citizen, resi­dent in the USA
Dalia Bank­aus­kaite, Head of the Media program at the Vilnius Insti­tute for policy ana­ly­sis, Lit­hua­nia
Kamil Basaj, Info Ops Project Manager, CEO at @Disinfo_Digest, Poland
Steven Block­mans, Senior rese­arch fellow, CEPS , Belgium
Olaf Boehnke, Advisor, Alli­ance of Demo­cra­cies, Germany
Tim Bohse, Poli­ti­cal Sci­en­tist, Germany
Simon Bracey-Lane, Rese­arch Fellow, Insti­tute for Sta­te­craft, UK
Alek­san­dar Brezar, Editor, Natio­nal RTV of Bosnia and Her­ze­go­vina ( BHRT ), Bosnia and Her­ze­go­vina
Pascal Bruck­ner, phi­lo­so­pher, France
Simas Čelutka, Head of Euro­pean Secu­rity Pro­gramme at Vilnius Insti­tute for Policy Ana­ly­sis, Lit­hua­nia
Iulian Chifu, Pro­fes­sor, rese­ar­cher; Con­flict Pre­ven­tion and Early Warning Center Buch­a­rest, Romania
Carmen Claudín, Asso­ciate senior rese­ar­cher CIDOB , Spain
Evan O’Connell, Euro­pean Affairs com­men­ta­tor, France
Halyna Coynash, Kharkiv Human Rights Group, Ukraine
Eugene Czolij, Ukrai­nian World Con­gress, Pre­si­dent, Canada
Harol­das Daublys, Head of Lit­hua­nian Riflemen’s Union’s support group for Ukraine, Lit­hua­nia
Danilo Elia Rai, Public broad­cas­ter of Italy /​ Jour­na­list, Italy
Urve Eslas, Adjunct fellow, CEPA , Estonia
Yevhen Fed­chenko, Stopfake.org co-founder, Ukraine
André Fesiak, Inde­pen­dent Rese­ar­cher, France
Petr Fojtík, Analyst, Czech Pirate Party, Czech Repu­blic
Ralf Fuecks, Center for Liberal Moder­nity, Direc­tor, Germany
Anna Garmash, Head of “Ukraine Action” ( NGO ), France
Alyona Get­man­chuk, direc­tor, New Europe Center, Ukraine
Anke Giesen, Lec­tu­rer, Germany
Paul Goble, Former US Government Spe­cia­list on the Non-Russian Peoples of the Formber Soviet Space, USA
George Gra­bo­wicz, Pro­fes­sor, Harvard Uni­ver­sity, United States
Gustav Gressel, Senior Policy Fellow; Euro­pean Council on Foreign Rela­ti­ons, Germany
Iulian Groza, Exe­cu­tive Direc­tor, Insti­tute for Euro­pean Poli­cies and Reforms, Moldova
Pavel Hav­licek, Analyst at Asso­cia­tion for Inter­na­tio­nal Affairs ( AMO ) in Prague, Czech Repu­blic
Berta Herrero, MEP Advisor, Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, Spain
Maryna Iaro­s­he­vych, Direc­tor of the Ukrai­nian World Con­gress Mission to Inter­na­tio­nal Orga­ni­za­ti­ons, Belgium
Jakub Janda, Direc­tor, Euro­pean Values Think-Tank, Czech Repu­blic
Kornely Kaka­chia, Geor­gian Insti­tute of Poli­tics, Georgia
Julia Kaz­do­bina, Head, Ukrai­nian Foun­da­tion for Secu­rity Studies, Ukraine
Tamar Kint­s­urash­vili, Direc­tor, Media Deve­lop­ment Foun­da­tion ( MDF ), Georgia
Lino Kle­ve­s­ath, poli­ti­cal sci­en­tist, Germany
Jana Kobzova, Advisor, Alli­ance of Demo­cra­cies, Belgium
Petr Kolář, Občané pro – Citi­zens for Czech Repu­blic
Peter Koller, The Greens, Germany
Lyud­myla Kozlovska, Pre­si­dent of the Open Dia­lo­gue Foun­da­tion, Belgium
Jacek Kuch­ar­c­zyk, Pre­si­dent, Insti­tute of Public Affairs, Poland
Kos­ti­an­tyn Kvurt, Head of Board at Inter­news Ukraine, Ukraine
Phil­ippe De Lara, assi­stant pro­fes­sor of poli­ti­cal science at Paris 2 uni­ver­sity, France
Marius Lau­ri­na­vicius, Senior expert, Vilnius Insti­tute for Policy Ana­ly­sis, Lit­hua­nia
John Lough, Asso­ciate Fellow, Russia &  Eurasia Pro­gramme, Chatham House, the United Kingdom
Jeff Lovitt, New Diplo­macy, Chair, UK and Czech Repu­blic
Oleksiy Makuk­hin, Ukraine Crisis Media Center, Ukraine
Jens Mattern, Jour­na­list, Poland
Olek­san­dra Mat­viy­chuk, Head of Center for Civil Liber­ties, Ukraine
Daniel Mazur, Project Manager; Charles Uni­ver­sity, Czech Repu­blic
Martin Myciel­ski, Brussels Cor­re­spon­dent, Gazeta Wybor­cza, Belgium
James Nixey, Head, Russia and Eurasia Pro­gramme, Chatham House
Ghia Nodia, Chair­man, Cau­ca­sus Insti­tute for Peace, Demo­cracy and Deve­lop­ment ( CIPDD ), Georgia
Robert van der Noordaa, inves­ti­ga­tive jour­na­list, the Nether­lands
Oxana Pach­lovska, Pro­fes­sor, Uni­ver­sity of Rome, Italy–Ukraine
Mas­si­mi­liano Di Pas­quale, Jour­na­list and writer, Italy
Tetiana Pechon­chyk, Human Rights Infor­ma­tion Center, the head of board, Ukraine
Nicolas De Pedro, Senior fellow, Insti­tute for Sta­te­craft, Spain
Chris­tian Pieper, Judge, Germany
Iryna Pieper, Teacher, Germany
Tetiana Push­nova, Inde­pen­dent media con­sul­tant, former Chief Pro­du­cer of inter­na­tio­nal TV Channel UKRAINE TODAY , Ukraine
Antje Rempe lan­guage teacher; pre­si­dent of the Part­ner­schafts­ver­ein Charkiw-Nürn­berg, Germany
Igor Res­het­nyak, Rese­ar­cher, EPFL , Switz­er­land
Ben Robin­son, Senior Fellow, Insti­tute for Sta­te­craft, UK
Gied­rius Saka­l­aus­kas, Res Publica, Lit­hua­nia
Olaf Saxegaard, Con­sul­tant, Norway
Alya Shandra, editor, Euro­mai­dan Press, Ukraine
Anton Shek­hovt­sov, Insti­tute for Euro-Atlan­tic Coope­ra­tion, Ukraine
Kris­tian Magnus Skars­våg, IT con­sul­tant, Norway
Maria Sle­sa­zeck, DRA e.V., Germany
Vla­di­mir Socor, Senior Fellow, James­town Foun­da­tion, USA /​ Germany
Susan Stewart, German Insti­tute for Inter­na­tio­nal and Secu­rity Affairs ( SWP ), Germany
Alice Stoll­meyer, Exe­cu­tive Direc­tor, Defen­ding Demo­cracy, Belgium
Dovile Sukyte, Policy Analyst, Eastern Europe Studies Centre, Lit­hua­nia
Sergiy Sydo­renko, Editor, Euro­pean Pravda, Ukraine
Joanna Szostek, Lec­tu­rer, Uni­ver­sity of Glasgow, United Kingdom
Wolf­gang Templin, Publi­cist, Germany
Lasha Tug­hu­shi, Chair­man of the Geor­gian natio­nal plat­form, EaP Civil Society Forum, Georgia
Rein­hard Weiß­huhn, Robert-Have­mann-Gesell­schaft, Germany
Robert Werner, CEO , Germany
Kata­ryna Wolczuk, Asso­ciate Fellow, Chatham House, United Kingdom
Anna Yavor­ska, Advo­cacy Officer, Open Dia­lo­gue Foun­da­tion, Belgium
Volo­dy­myr Yer­mo­lenko, phi­lo­so­pher, jour­na­list, editor at UkraineWorld.org, Ukraine
Borys Zak­ha­rov, Huma­ni­ta­rian Studio Khvylia, Head of the Board, Ukraine
Bjørn Johan Berger, Norway
Anzhela Prazd­nich­nykh, Belgium
Malvin Nygård, Norway
Dr. Ječmí­nek Jan Martin, Czech Repu­blic
Anto­nina Demenko, Norway
Even Jahr, Norway
Jaros­lav Froněk, Czech Repu­blic
Ondřej Mor­a­včík, Czech Repu­blic