United States vice-president JD Vance’s recent criticisms of Europe we “unhelpful and misinformed”, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights has said.
Michael O’Flaherty, the European institution’s human rights chief, said the myth that far-right politicians represented the “voice of the people” has to be challenged.
In a speech in Munich last week Mr Vance criticised European leaders for restricting free speech, failing to tackle mass migration, and refusing to work with populist parties.
“Vice-president Vance spoke about us yielding on free speech, but he seemed to be inviting some kind of absolute free speech,” O’Flaherty said. “We’ve learned from our history in Europe where absolute free speech leads you, it leads you to tyranny, despotism, it leads you to genocide. He spoke about us abandoning our values, I would say it’s quite the contrary.”
He said the rise of far-right political parties – who have seen big increases in support in France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and many other EU states – was the result of politicians “stirring up” resentment. “Populism is not driven by the wishes of the people in our streets calling for something new. It’s led from the top down by certain politicians,” said O’Flaherty.
“But there is an unease, no doubt about it, many people in Europe are unhappy...Young men in particular feel very aggrieved, and we have to engage with them directly, we have to listen to them.”
Respect for human rights is not an optional “luxury” but something that emerged as a “central pillar” of the world order after the horrors of the second World War, he said. “It’s an extraordinary, reckless thing to throw away what we’ve achieved.”
The Council of Europe, set up in 1949 to guard human rights, includes all 27 EU states, Britain, Ukraine, and most other European countries, as well as Turkey and Georgia. O’Flaherty, who is from Galway, took over as the Strasbourg-based organisation’s human rights commissioner last April.
He said it is crucial that getting accountability for crimes perpetrated by Russian troops in the Ukraine war is not sidelined in any agreement to stop the conflict.
O’Flaherty visited the Ukrainian city of Bucha, where Russian forces carried out major atrocities as their advance towards Kyiv was stopped in the early weeks of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
“It’s about summary executions. It’s about an old man – and I saw a photograph of his body – an old man shot dead while out on a bicycle with his shopping bags,” he said. “It’s about unspeakable physical tortures. It’s about rape, rape of women and men...It’s so important this not be forgotten and that justice be delivered.”
The human rights chief said he is not privy to the details of preliminary talks between the US and Russia to strike a deal with Ukraine to end the war.
Accountability for crimes committed during conflicts was often overlooked, he said. “My view is clear that you can have no peace without justice”.
Separately, he said EU states need to be careful not to hand Russian president Vladimir Putin a “moral” victory by undermining the right of people to seek asylum in Europe.
Russia and its ally Belarus have been accused of weaponising migration by facilitating migrants to travel from Africa and the Middle East, then transporting them to the border of Poland and other neighbouring states to cross into the EU.
In response Poland plans to suspend the right of people crossing from Belarus to claim asylum. It has also been accused of pushing migrants back over the Belarusian border.
The actions of authorities in Belarus and Russia were “despicable”, O’Flaherty said. However, he said Europe should not abandon the moral high ground. “What I ask is that European countries facing these risks not concede the most fundamental of their values and their commitments. If they do so they’re giving in. It’s almost like the other side wins,” he said.
“It’s not okay to send somebody back across such a border at risk of persecution. It’s not okay that somebody fleeing from persecution does not get the chance to apply for asylum.”
A drive by some governments to explore outsourcing aspects of their migration and asylum systems to other countries needs to be watched “incredibly closely”, he said.
The European Commission, the EU executive that proposes laws, is said to be examining a controversial idea for deportation hubs. These would be sites located outside EU borders where people whose asylum claims are rejected could be sent while efforts are made to return them to their home country.
“It’s a bit difficult to talk about return hubs because it’s all still a bit abstract, we don’t have any concrete specifics,” O’Flaherty said. There are “clear red lines” regarding the deportation of people back to a place where they might be at risk of persecution or harm. “You have to only use detention of people as a last resort, you can’t just round people up and lock them up. That’s not acceptable.”
