The fight against impunity and the defence of human rights are two of the guiding principles that have shaped public policies in the European space since the end of the Second World War. The atrocities committed during that conflict, particularly on European soil, led the States of what was then Western Europe to embrace the commitment to “never again” and to translate it into legal and institutional structures designed to limit power and to effectively protect individuals from potential authoritarian drift.
Over time, these instruments have extended to virtually the entire continent, with the painful exception of Russia and Belarus, which remain marked by dynamics of power concentration incompatible with European standards. Despite their imperfections and the setbacks that have intensified in recent years, the rest of the European States continue to be, in comparative terms, a global benchmark as a sspace of freedom, justice and guarantees that deserves to be preserved.
Human rights cannot be separated from the rule of law, for the two are mutually reinforcing. Wherever rights are violated in a systemic and structural manner, the rule of law becomes devoid of substance. It rests on the principles of legality and legal certainty and includes, as the European Commission has noted, essential elements such as freedom of expression and media pluralism, the institutional checks and balances inherent to any democracy, judicial independence and the effective fight against corruption.
In a context of growing challenges to the post‑war rules-based order, of erosion of institutional checks and balances in various States, and of armed aggression against a sovereign European country, the European project is undergoing a phase of evident tension. Added to this is a citizenry that is at times demobilised or sceptical about the capacity of institutions to respond to these challenges. For this very reason, it is more necessary than ever to strengthen our democracy, to understand and value our institutions, and to design mechanisms that guarantee a just and peaceful future.
These ideals inspire the work of the research team on the crisis of the rule of law and resilience to hybrid threats, directed from UCH CEU. Within this framework falls the participation of its principal investigator in the IX World Congress of Social Sciences, held in Berlin, and in the XI Course on Human Rights and Integration Law organised by the Università degli Studi di Perugia and the University of Buenos Aires, with the participation of international judges and jurists from different regions of the world, particularly Latin America.
In Berlin, Susana Sanz’s presentation focused on the new mechanisms that the Council of Europe is promoting to combat the impunity of the leaders responsible for the invasion of Ukraine. In Perugia, the focus was on analysing the two human rights protection systems that coexist in Europe, the Council of Europe’s and that of the European Union, as well as the debate on their mutual relationship, which is not always free from friction. Both areas are fully embedded in the defence of the rule of law at the international level, since both impunity for crimes of aggression and a weak or merely symbolic protection of human rights would render their effective respect in Europe illusory and unattainable.
