ZMINA took part in Civil Society Summit on Council of Europe

The Civil Society Summit on the Council of Europe (CoE) took place in The Hague, Netherlands, on 28 February – 1 March 2023 ahead of the Council of Europe Summit of Heads of State. ZMINA’s International Advocacy Manager Tetiana Zhukova joined the event and prepared a statement on the role of the Council of Europe in ensuring accountability for international crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine.

The Summit gathered 105 participants from 27 CoE member states and 2 non-member states in The Hague, and 57 online participants from 20 CoE member states and 1 non-member state. They took part in two panel discussions, several plenary sessions and 12 thematic working groups, focusing on particular areas of concern.

The Summit participants jointly worked on three documents – The Hague Civil Society Declaration on Council of Europe Reform, a statement on the situation in Turkey and a statement on the role of the Council of Europe in ensuring accountability for international crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine.

ZMINA’s Tetiana Zhukova prepared a statement and drafted it in close cooperation with Regional Center for Human Rights and Center for Civil Liberties during the meeting of a working group on Ukraine which gathered interested international civil society representatives. It includs recommendations to CoE, its bodies and Member States, such as:

• to condemn Russian aggression against Ukraine and crimes committed by Russia in other countries and territories, criticize the policy of appeasement and recognize the Holodomor and deportation of Crimean Tatars as genocide against the Ukrainian nation and indigenous people;
• to facilitate the implementation of the victim-centered approach to the accountability and compensation processes;
• to establish a register to record and document evidence and claims of damage, loss or injury in coordination and complementarity with existing mechanisms;
• to promote transparency and accountability in the documentation of international crimes, launch of the documentation process in the other countries and assist in the coordination of efforts between various actors;
• to guarantee the implementation of the principle of universal jurisdiction over international crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine by the CoE Member States, its standardization;
• to advocate for the establishment of a Special Tribunal on the crime of aggression and to assist in its setting up.

In addition, the participants of the Summit developed recommendations on CoE reform and handed them over to President of the Parliamentary Assembly of CoE Tiny Kox, Deputy Secretary General of CoE Bjørn Berge and Representative of the Icelandic Presidency of the CoE’ Committee of Ministers Martin Eyjólfsson. 

“Europe should respond to the threats against multilateralism by reassembling the core building blocks of democracy. Going back to the basics. And a vibrant civil society remains central to any democracy,” emphasized Bjørn Berge

The Summit was organised by Campaign to Uphold Rights in Europe and Conference of International NGOs of the Council of Europe, and supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the German Federal Foreign Office and the European Union.