In her annual report published today – Council of Europe Day –, the Secretary General Maria Pejčinović Burić said that “the Organisation’s standards need to be applied across every aspect of Europeans’ lives”. She also stressed “the deep impact of Russia’s brutal, illegal and ongoing aggression against Ukraine”. “The aggression against Ukraine has caused extraordinary suffering”: thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, “horrifying stories of torture, rape. We yearn for a return to peace: a sustainable peace based on justice”. The report, with a first section looking at strengths and weaknesses in democratic institutions and a second focusing on the quality of the democratic environment, highlights challenges. First of all, “increased violence against journalists, the use of surveillance to track and intimidate them and tactics ranging from detention to strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) to prevent investigative journalists and others from doing their jobs”. Second, “new laws and the misuse of existing ones to limit civil society, with public demonstrations wrongly classified as dangerous, excessive force used against demonstrators, non-governmental organisations faced with increased financial restrictions and bureaucratic hurdles, and the use of the legal system to undermine political opposition”. And “a polarised political environment in which hate speech continues to grow, both online and offline, often targeting women and a range of minorities and vulnerable groups”. The Secretary General further points out: “these negative trends are not found everywhere, and it is important to recognise that there also positive developments in some member states”.