THE EUROPEAN SWAMP. (CAVIAR DIPLOMACY Part 2) Prosecutors, corruption and the Council of Europe
THE EUROPEAN SWAMP. (CAVIAR DIPLOMACY Part 2) Prosecutors, corruption and the Council of Europe

Author(s): Author Not Specified
Subject(s): Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Diplomatic history, International relations/trade
Published by: ESI – European Stability Initiative
Keywords: Council opf Europe; corruption; Human Rights watch;
Summary/Abstract: Can basic international norms be undermined by corruption? Can international politics be fundamentally reshaped by the personal greed of politicians? These are among the most important questions in global politics today. When it comes to the Council of Europe, guardian of the European Convention of Human Rights and, since its creation in 1949, the leading intergovernmental human rights institution in the world, the answer to both questions is yes.In this follow-up to Caviar Diplomacy, we take a closer look, four years later, at the progress that has been made on miring the Council of Europe in a swamp of corruption. This time we provide the names of members of the parliamentary assembly who paid bribes – including Elkhan Suleymanov, the mastermind behind this policy in Strasbourg. We describe in detail how the corruption of MPs proceeded, from early visits with precious gifts meant to test the beneficiaries’ reactions, to long-term contracts involving huge sums of money. In the third part in this series we will offer specific recommendations for what to do next.

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