On Wednesday, the Council of Europe (CoE), a pan-European human rights organization, announced that it had excluded Russia from its membership after 26 years.
According to a statement published on the Council of Europe’s website, “the Committee of Ministers has decided that the Russian Federation ceases to be a member of the Council of Europe as of today, following the procedure initiated under Article 8 of the Statute of the Council of Europe.”
In a statement, the CEO said that “the Russian Federation no longer qualifies as a member state of the Organization,” following an opinion adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly on Tuesday.
As a result of Russia’s “unjustified and unprovoked aggression” of Ukraine, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers and Parliamentary Assembly voted to initiate the expulsion proceedings against the Russian Federation.
What Russia and Ukraine are saying
The Russian foreign ministry responded by announcing that it was withdrawing from the pan-European structure, arguing that it had taken a “discriminatory decision” to suspend the country’s representation on the 26th of February.
As part of his speech to the chamber on Monday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal called for Russia to be expelled from the Council of Europe, saying Ukraine was “on fire.”
As opposed to the European Union, the Council of Europe counts 46 member states and is also an official Observer of the United Nations. The Court is also a parent structure of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The Russian Federation joined the Council of Europe on 28 February 1996.
A statement issued by the European Council read, “By their actions in Ukraine, the Russian authorities deprive the Russian people of the most advanced human rights protection system in the world, including the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights as well as our convention system,” the statement added.
