27/02/2025 President
PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos has urged that any peace plan to end the brutal conflict in Ukraine must “be based on justice and respect for international law”.
Delivering the Lord Speaker’s Lecture last night to a select audience at the House of Lords in London, during a working visit to the United Kingdom, the President said that any other starting point would fail “and can only undermine the very foundations not only of international law, but also our shared values, and ultimately our European security”.
In his lecture, marking the 75th anniversary of the Council of Europe, the President said that conflicts “can and must be resolved through dialogue, and through legal channels, but not through violence and the law of the strongest”.
Drawing on Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian War, the President recounted how powerful Athens had cruelly besieged and enslaved the weaker island city of Milos, arguing that power determines law, trumping morality. Yet the Athenians ultimately paid for their cynicism, defeated in turn by Sparta.
“We must resist cynicism. We must resist everything that undermines democracy, the rule of law and human rights. This year as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the human rights convention, let’s give our best to support our principles against cynicism and anti-democratic obsessions,” the President declared.
He also hailed the “commitment and leadership” of the United Kingdom in upholding and promoting the rules-based order and democratic principles worldwide, adding: “I am extremely heartened that the UK government today, led by Prime Minister Starmer, has been so explicit in its support for the European Convention on Human Rights.”
He also hailed the work of the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the UK Parliament, for its efforts to defend international law principles at the national level “even in the most politically-charged situations, and at times when courage has been needed”.
