Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe Bjørn Berge gave the 3rd Klaus Kinkel Lecture Karlsruhe, Germany. In his lecture, entitled Europe's Resilience in the Face of War and Authoritarianism, he discussed Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, and the threat of artificial intelligence and foreign information manipulation and interference. He highlighted ways Europe and its institutions, particularly the Council of Europe, can address these challenges and find just and lasting peace for Ukraine.
The Deputy Secretary General reminded the audience of then Federal Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel´s address at the UN General Assembly in 1992, where he denounced the ongoing wars saying: "Even setbacks must not divert us from this right path towards the rule of law and respect for human dignity. There is no reasonable alternative to this, unless one wanted to go back to the law of the strongest."
"It is impossible not to hear the resonance of those words in what is happening right now in Ukraine," Mr Berge told the audience.
"I believe the choice before us today is the same one Kinkel described more than thirty years ago: Do we uphold the rule of law, even when it is difficult - or do we allow the law of the strongest to become the new normal?
And as I have already mentioned, supporting those affected by the war - and ensuring that perpetrators of war crimes are brought to justice - is central to our work, and will help secure a just and lasting peace for Ukraine."
Welcoming remarks were made by Dr. Salim Amin, Policy Advisor for Human Rights and International Rule of Law at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, and Philipp Ivo Kratzer, Board member at the Association of Liberal Lawyers.
Deputy Secretary General Berge participated in a panel discussion with Anne Brasseur, Member of the Board of Directors of Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom and former President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, answering questions from moderator Giggi Deppe and audience members about how to preserve the essence of liberal democracy in a rapidly changing world.
Read the Deputy Secretary General's speech in full
