Tekke Panman (Netherlands, EPP/CD) opened a current affairs debate today on "Safeguarding the system of international justice" at the Parliamentary Assembly the Council of Europe. As part of her speech, she stated as follows:
"To listen to the rhetoric and news in these last weeks and months, it seems that too many have forgotten the importance of international law and international justice, forgotten that these are the shared values of our community, and forgotten above all that humanity is at the heart of our system."
Germany's Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection Stefanie Hubig also took part in the debate, focusing on the need for the rule of law. She reminded the members present - who are drawn from legislatures across the whole continent, pulling together diverse systems and national narratives under one European umbrella - of their body's own history.
She drew on the story of Winston Churchill's idea, in the shattered ruins of war, to move from a Europe "ripped apart by violence" to a united Europe, "one held together by law". It is not a place we should want to go back to. "Nobody can turn back the wheel of time: law must prevail over violence," she said. That idea led to the formation of the Council of Europe.
"The Council of Europe is more important than ever - it represents another kind of order, based on international cooperation and the protection of the individual against the power of the state," she added. "It is the counter-model to a world in which violence has become an instrument of political power."
Agenda of the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
The founding of the Council of Europe
