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The Council of Europe as an exporter of democracy, human rights and the rule of law

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Abstract

This article explores the motives that drive the Council of Europe's (CoE) engagement beyond its membership and examines the pathways that the organisation uses to export its core norms and values. Based on the discussion of the activities of the CoE in its core issue areas – that is, human rights, democracy and the rule of law – three analytically distinct instruments can be discerned that the organisation employs to influence the development in neighbouring regions and beyond: ‘inclusion,’ ‘fieldwork’ and ‘voice’. However, the discussion also demonstrates that the CoE's institutions are lacking a unified strategy as to how to engage with non-member states.

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Notes

  1. Academic literature on the CoE is scant, particularly when compared with the literature on the EU. Among the few exceptions are MacMullen (2004), Bae (2008), Francis (2008), Brummer (2010, 2012), Bond (2012).

  2. It is beyond the scope of this article to examine the impact of the CoE's activities in non-member states (for instance by looking at the response from state leaders, opinion polls or media coverage) or the motives that drive these states to engage with the organisation in the first place.

  3. Since September 2006 observer states are invited to attend meetings of the ‘Ministers’ Deputies’. Since those weekly meetings are essential for the day-to-day business of the CoE, the observer states de facto are represented in the Committee of Ministers.

  4. Already in 1970, and thus prior to any formal arrangements, the Holy See was permitted to send observers to expert committees of the CoE.

  5. The Assembly's session period is 1 (calendar) year, within which four part-sessions are conducted.

  6. Whereas observer status was granted to the Israeli parliament on an ad hoc basis, the parliaments of Canada and Mexico received the status in accordance with a newly introduced provision in the Assembly's Rules of Procedure.

  7. Although the Rules of Procedure were adopted in 1999, they have subsequently been amended several times. The version used in this article corresponds to the current Rules of Procedure as of late 2011.

  8. The resolution goes on by adding vaguely that ‘requests from parliaments of other states may also be considered’ (Parliamentary Assembly, 2009b, para. 15).

  9. Even though several specific issue areas were identified as being of major importance for achieving progress in Morocco, the Assembly's resolution did not establish specific conditions that need to be met in order to maintain the status.

  10. Another body of the CoE that conducts election observation missions also in non-member states is the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities. Whereas the Assembly focuses on national elections, the Congress monitors local elections, for instance several times during the last decade in Kosovo or in 2008 in Israel.

  11. Neither the Anti-torture convention nor the explanatory report contains similar specifications.

  12. This finding mirrors common verdicts on the EU's foreign policy, which is frequently criticised as being fraught with tension among different institutions (above all the Commission on the one hand and the Council on the other) and lacking coherence more generally. See, for instance, Gebhard (2011).

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  1. Institute for Political Science, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Kochstr. 4, Erlangen, 91054, Germany

    Klaus Brummer

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Brummer, K. The Council of Europe as an exporter of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Int Polit 51, 67–86 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2013.27

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