21/06/2022 | 17:43:39 Thank you Chair, I think every one of us has been shocked by the brutality of Mr Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine; the absolute cynicism that we have seen in Mariupol, in Bucha - but none of us really should be shocked that that war took place because Mr Vladimir Putin gave us plenty of warning - he gave us warning in 2014, when he annexed the Crimea illegally. Had we reacted at that time as we've now begun to react, then I think it is very credible to say we could have prevented the tragedy... 20/06/2022 | 15:13:23 Thank you, Madam Chair. Let me begin by congratulating our colleague, Mr Momodou Malcolm JALLOW, for what I think is an excellent report. The report that is timely, because he is right to tell us that in this European home of ours hate speech is on the increase, intolerance is on the increase. Some of that is driven by other forces, but clearly social media has been a major driver of those changes. It is time that we once again examine the role of political parties in combating this. Mr... 28/04/2022 | 11:51:56 Yes, thank you, Chair. Let me congratulate once again the rapporteur for what is an excellent report and for the work of course of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights in bringing that report before us today. It is important to say there must be rules of war. Sometimes it seems an odd thing. If ever we recognise why there must be rules of war, it is this conflict being waged by Russia in Ukraine. The victims are individuals, those who have been tortured, those who've been raped... 15/03/2022 | 12:45:24 Thank you, Mr President. Let me begin by thanking our rapporteur for what is both an excellent document but one that's been improved during the course of its time through our Assembly's deliberations. It's now a very powerful political statement that does two mutually reinforced things. It gives a very clear signal to the Council of Ministers that we expect the expulsion of Russia from the Council of Europe. It also says to our colleagues on the Council of Ministers that they must do that... 27/01/2022 | 12:32:24 Thank you, Mr President. Of course, the Council of Europe is not a security organisation. But, nevertheless, I think every one of us knows that any resort to military violence in different parts of Europe will lead to human rights abuse on a massive scale. We have two major flashpoints now. One: Bosnia-Herzegovina and the second: between Russia and Ukraine. We know, let me take the second of these, Ukraine. We know that any military intervention by Russia into Ukraine would obviously lead... 27/01/2022 | 09:48:13 Thank you Madam Chair. Let me begin by saying this: two years on there are serious lessons we've already learned. Some of these things we knew already. Scientists have been predicting for a long time that something like the Covid-19 pandemic would hit the world and we weren't, as a world, prepared for that. Some things work very well. The rapid development of vaccines was something that is an enormous tribute to the global scientific community. That was a great thing to see: how quickly... 25/01/2022 | 18:37:34 Thank you Mr Chairman. Can I begin by saying – like others – that it's inevitable that a free media plays a fundamental role in a democratic society. It should be regarded as not necessarily the politician's friend, not necessarily the government's friend, but the friend of the public. Whilst others have already commented on the difficulties that the proliferation of social media, inaccurate fake news has played during the COVID-19 crisis, nevertheless we have depended on our media to make... 30/09/2021 | 10:31:18 Madam President, can I first of all thank the Secretariat for their incredibly hard work over these few days in preparing for me this report which I think has been widely accepted as a very good basis for us to continue our conversations about Afghanistan. I'd also like to thank colleagues generally because I think it's true to say that the compassion that we've heard mainly across the debate this morning reflects both well on this Assembly, but reflects actually what we should be talking... 30/09/2021 | 09:09:15 Thank you, Madam President. Can I just begin by making this very obvious point, but the all of us will remember forever those graphic pictures of people fleeing for their lives attempting to hang onto the bottom of planes taking off from the airport in Kabul only to fall to their death. Those pictures will live with us for, I think, forever. Those pictures are important because we will not see the pictures of the many-headed crisis that Afghanistan and its people now face. We know that that... 24/06/2021 | 16:48:32 Many congratulations to our rapporteur Mr Momodou Malcolm JALLOW, on what is an excellent report. But I do want to echo something he made very clear, that his call is not simply for support, it is for action, and we need action. We need action in countries like my own, where yesterday, we saw a prison officer convicted of manslaughter when he kicked to death and tasered to a reasonable degree a man called Dalian Atkinson, a former professional footballer, who played at the highest levels of...