Strasbourg (France), May 4 (EFE).- The secretary general of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejcinovic, said this Wednesday that Russia has revived the horrors of the Second World War with its aggression against Ukraine and its departure from the values that support the pan-European organisation.
The organization was created 73 years ago as a result of the Second World War and with the promise of “never again”. “For Ukraine, that promise has not been fulfilled. It is not a failure of multilateralism per se, but the result of a violent turnaround in a country,” he said.
“We had dared to believe that images (of war) like these belonged to Europe’s past. We were wrong. History has returned to our continent in the cruelest way”, added the representative of the Council of Europe.
In the introduction to his annual report “Advancing 2022”, he said that the lesson to be learned is that the success of his organization and the continent depends on the determination of its member states “to do the right thing”.
And doing the right thing is “investing in human rights, democracy and the rule of law,” he said.
Marija Pejcinovic praised the way the Ukrainian people showed “extraordinary courage and determination” in defense of their country and expressed their willingness “to help with interventions as the violence stops”.
The annual report analyzes the different bodies of the Council of Europe and assesses the situation of political institutions, judicial independence, freedom of expression, human dignity and the fight against discrimination. EFE
