Speech by the Rt Hon Terry Davis, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe
Opening session of the Summer University for Democracy
Strasbourg, 6 July 2009
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Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Welcome to the fourth Summer University for Democracy.
This year is very special. For the first time, we are welcoming participants from Africa, who are attending the University with the support of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. During the next five days, you will have the opportunity to listen and talk with several exceptionally prominent guest speakers, beginning with the guest of honour today, the President of the country chairing the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Dr Danilo Türk. And of course, this year, the Summer University for Democracy coincides with the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Council of Europe and the 20th anniversary of the historic events which brought an end to decades of ideological division in Europe.
The theme this year is “Global Challenges to Democracy” and the documents prepared for the Summer University refer to three specific challenges: terrorism, the economic and financial crisis, and threats to the environment.
Terrorism is of course a major threat to democracy. In my opinion, most terrorists are insane, but very few of them are stupid. They have a total disregard for human life, and usually they choose their victims at random, but never without purpose. They kill in order to instil fear and instability and in this way disrupt the normal functioning of society. They also kill to provoke a reaction, hoping that it will be disproportionate and indiscriminate. Torture, disappearances, illegal detentions – any departure from the agreed, nationally and internationally established rules and accepted values – and we have seen many such departures in recent years - are used as propaganda to argue that the terrorised are no better than the terrorists. Every time we fail to abide by our laws and by our beliefs, we create new extremists and help to recruit new terrorists. It is as simple as that. The only effective anti-terrorist policy is one which stops more terrorists than it helps to recruit.
Terrorism is a major threat to democracy, human rights and the rule of law. But our response must protect these values – not give up on them. If we do that, the terrorists have already won.
The second theme to be discussed this week is the relation between democracy and the global economy – especially international finance – a gainst the background of the current crisis.
This is of course a very topical subject. It is also very important.
The financial crisis which has turned into a global recession opens up
a whole range of questions related to the “democratic deficit” in running world financial markets and global economy. A very small group of people controls immense financial resources and have the power to take decisions which affect the lives of billions of people around the world – and all that without any real influence by the public, without any meaningful democratic control. The only time the public and our public institutions really get involved is when they have to foot the bill when things go really wrong.
But I would like to broaden the approach in our discussions about democracy and the economy. Many people think that the economy was, together with defence, deliberately left out of the Statute of the Council of Europe adopted 60 years ago in London. That is not true. The Statute, when listing the areas in which the Council of Europe will pursue its action to achieve a greater unity between its members, mentions economic questions first - before social, cultural, scientific, legal, administrative and of course human rights and fundamental freedoms.
When you think about it, that is very logical. The economy, democracy and human rights are closely connected.
On one hand, there is a minimum economic threshold necessary for the normal functioning of democracy and human rights. This does not mean that people living in places which are below such a threshold are not entitled to democracy or human rights. Of course they are , but if they are trapped in a struggle for physical survival, they cannot exercise and enjoy the rights to which they are entitled. One could ask what good is freedom of expression and freedom of association to someone who is denied the freedom to survive. But there is also another aspect to the relationship between freedom and poverty. The Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen from India pointed out no independent and democratic country with a relatively free press has ever suffered from widespread famine.
For me, the lesson to be drawn from all this is that in countries affected by poverty, political and economic progress must go hand in hand. Political progress without economic progress is meaningless, and economic progress without political progress does not work.
But even in more affluent societies, the economy has a very significant influence on democracy and human rights, and vice versa. In fact, we are currently living in a period which serves as a very good case in point.
An economic crisis is a threat to social fabric and social cohesion. It leads to uncertainty about the future and often provokes tensions along national, ethnic, religious or other lines. Economic problems produce fertile ground for populist politics catering to fear and prejudice. The consequences may be very serious, sometimes tragic.
I believe in the capacity of human beings to learn from their own past mistakes so that I am not saying that Europe is likely to relapse into the horror it went through only a lifetime ago. Nevertheless, I would call for caution and vigilance.
Prejudice and discrimination against some minority groups which we see in different parts of Europe, is a cause for great concern. What is particularly worrying is that hate is sometimes encouraged, propagated and exploited by politicians and other people with influence and responsibility in our societies.
When hate, prejudice and discrimination become accepted, or even officially endorsed and legitimised, as has been the case with discriminatory measures against Roma, immigrants or gays and lesbians in several parts of Europe, it is not only the human rights of these minorities which are in danger. We are all affected, and eventually, we may all pay the price. You have probably all heard the poem “First they came” by Pastor Niemöller and its simple and distressing truth about the rise of Nazism. Remember its last line which says “when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me”.
I do not think that Nazism has much hope of making a comeback in Europe, but we must still speak up, now, and for everyone whose human rights and human dignity are not respected. We do it for them, and we do it for ourselves. For our human rights, for our human dignity, and for our freedom.
This week you will also discuss threats to the environment and their consequences for democracy. These are fundamental issues, preconditions not only for our freedom, but also for our survival. The overexploitation of natural resources, global warming, industrial pollution, extinction of species, these threats know no borders. Our response must also be international. We are all in the same boat. We are all responsible for making sure that the boat does not become a Titanic.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is my last participation in the Summer University for Democracy, at least in my capacity as Secretary General of the Council of Europe. It is also one of the last public functions in which I take part before the end of my mandate in less than two months. That is why I should like to add a very personal message to all of you who have attended one of the Council of Europe Schools of Political Studies.
This very successful programme of the Council of Europe, generously supported by the European Union, is sometimes described as “training future political leaders”. I have always had a problem with this description.
The only way to become a real political leader is by winning the support, the trust and the confidence and therefore the votes of the people you want to lead. When you do that, as some of you have already done, you become a genuine political leader.
Neither a Council of Europe School of Political Studies nor the Summer University for Democracy will give you a ticket to leadership and power, but they will give you the skills, the experience, the contacts and the knowledge, the democratic values, the standards and the principles which will help you to achieve your ambitions. That is the whole point of this programme.
I wish you the best of luck – now and in the future.
