Press statement on the situation in Ukraine
SUSPEND RUSSIAN COUNCIL OF EUROPE MEMBERSHIP NOW
Strasbourg 24.02.2022
Democracy and human rights trainers from Europe and North Africa today called for the immediate suspension of Russia from the 47 member Council of Europe.
"Invading Ukraine, a Member state of the Council of Europe, is a flagrant breach of the Council’s Statute and makes a mockery of the values on which the organisation was founded” said the Secretary General of the Association of Schools of Political Studies of the Council of Europe (ASPS), Jack Hanning. “The Council’s Committee of Ministers should have the courage of its convictions and suspend Russian membership under Article 8 of the Statute until such time as it withdraws from Ukraine and implements rulings of the European Court of Human Rights in cases such as that of Alexei Navalny”, Hanning added. The ASPS which the Russian Federation has labeled “an undesirable organisation” groups 21 Schools of Political Studies which promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
