Mr. Chair,
I have the honour of delivering this statement on behalf of the Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and my own country, Norway.
We warmly welcome Mr. Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, to the Permanent Council and thank him for his address.
Both the OSCE and the Council of Europe are underpinned by the same values: democracy, human rights, rule of law, and peace based on justice. In an evolving European and global security landscape, close cooperation and coordination between our two organizations is essential. Both organizations have developed significant expertise within their respective mandates, and the Nordic countries strongly support their complementary roles.
Mr. Chair,
Russia’s unlawful, unjustified, and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine violates the core principles of both organizations. The Nordic countries stand in full solidarity with Ukraine and support its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Accountability for international crimes, including the crime of aggression, is essential.
Without accountability, there can be no justice. Without justice, there can be no lasting peace. The OSCE Moscow Mechanism plays a valuable role in documenting violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. These reports, as well as ODIHR’s Ukraine Monitoring Initiative, are significant contributions to justice. The Council of Europe plays a central and unique role in the establishment of a mechanism to ensure accountability for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The Register of Damage is essential to document claims and evidence and ongoing efforts to establish of the International Claims Commission for Ukraine and the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression are significant steps toward justice and future reparations. We would like to commend the role of the Council of Europe in supporting these efforts.
The Nordic countries will remain steadfast supporters of the work of both the Council of Europe and the OSCE, based on their respective and unique mandates. We are convinced that the only way to address and resolve the cross-border challenges of democratic backsliding, continued shrinking civic space, human rights violations, the backlash against women’s rights, the spread of disinformation, foreign information manipulation and interference, and to harness the opportunities and address the challenges of new technologies, is to defend the rules-based international order and promote our jointly agreed principles.
We must choose multilateral solutions and cooperation over conflict, grounded in respect for international law which lies at the core of both organizations.
Thank you.