| It was set up after
WW2, in effect with the aim of ensuring that WW3 didn't start with
a war between countries in Europe in the way that WW2 had. The Council
of Europe is concerned with promoting human rights (and hence the
rule of law), and therefore is opposed to totalitarianism and oppression
of citizens. It has a court, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR),
helping to enforce its major convention, the European Convention of
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHRFF). (There are also other
conventions).
The Council of Europe has 44 member countries in and around Europe.
The United States, Canada, and Mexico, have "observer"
status. The key members who joined before 1980 include Austria,
Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland,
Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom. Most of the members
who joined after 1990 include Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia
& Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Roumania, Russia, Slovak Republik,
Slovenia, Ukraine.
The aims of the Council of Europe are incompatible with Fascist
regimes such as those initiating WW2. They are also incompatible
with members of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The former
countries of the USSR could never have joined the Council of Europe
before the collapse of the USSR, and afterwards they had to separately
agree to principles of human rights. The Council of Europe, and
the ECHRFF, and the ECHR, are anti-totalitarian, anti-communist,
anti-fascist, and anti-extreme-socialist. They are pro-citizen-rights.
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