New report: The role of regional human rights institutions and the quest for peace in Europe – with a comment on the invasion of Ukraine

The SFHR is happy to announce that the report ”The role of regional human rights institutions and the quest for peace in Europe – with a comment on the invasion of Ukraine” now is available on our webpage. The report focuses on the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the European Union and explores the nexus between human rights and peace and security within the three intergovernmental organisations.

The conclusion on the role of the human rights institutions within the three intergovernmental organisations – the European Council, the OSCE, and the EU – must be that they do play important roles as for their contributions to peace and security in the region. They clearly relate to conflict prevention, early warning and peacebuilding in their work and connect this work to the promotion, protection and fulfilment of human rights, the rule of law, access to justice and transitional justice. They liaise between themselves and they have access to and are used as experts by the decision-making bodies of their respective organisations.

However, at the time of writing, we have witnessed significant changes in the security situation in Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the end of February 2022. This is not only a serious threat of the human rights, peace and security situation in Europe but also put the existing European Human Rights System to test.

The report is being published following the SFHR’s webinar “The importance of the European Human Rights System for peace and security – using the invasion of Ukraine as an example” which took place today. During the seminar, prominent experts within the filed discussed the possibilities and challenges that the European human rights system offers, including in the light of the war currently going on in Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A record of the webinar will shortly be posted on our Social Medias. Please follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, and visit our webpage not to miss out the release of the webinar.

Click here to read the report!