23/06/2021 | 17:37:58 Thank you, Madam Speaker. Dear colleagues, The report we are discussing today concerns the situation of Crimean Tatars since the events in the autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol in February and March 2014. Our Assembly has discussed those events many times already so I will stick to the key points. In late February 2014, during a period of political unrest in Ukraine, armed men including members of the Russian armed forces took control of strategic sites in Crimea and... 22/06/2021 | 11:01:03 Thank you, Mister President. Dear colleagues, I'd like to congratulate the rapporteur on his report. I think it's very important that we have this discussion especially at a time where it's vital that the public can depend on the information that it receives. I would like to use this opportunity to point out a situation that we have ongoing in my own, in Iceland, where a very powerful fisheries company has taken it upon itself to attack the media, to actually stalk the journalist that has... 21/06/2021 | 18:19:43 Merci, Madame la Présidente. Dear colleagues, first of all I would like to thank the rapporteur, Mr Boriss CILEVIČS, for his excellent report. We fully support our rapporteur who has worked very diligently on this report. He has worked very hard to listen to all parties involved and to bring us a very well-founded and well-researched report. I want to thank him very much for that. I'd also like to welcome the recent development where we see that we are looking to and we're hoping to see that... 20/04/2021 | 10:20:52 Dear Chancellor, Thank you very much for your inspiring speech. One of the focal points of the Council of Europe's work is the fight against corruption. It is an important foundation for the rule of law and the trust of our citizens. Here in the Council of Europe there was a major corruption crisis around Azerbaijan in 2018. We have investigated this and drawn the necessary conclusions. In addition, we have called on member States to also address this matter in their jurisdictions. Some... 27/01/2021 | 17:51:52 Thank you, Madam President. Freedom of assembly is a fundamental right, essential to the functioning of every healthy democracy. [she was disconnected for a moment] ..right to freedom of assembly. Civil society is a mobilising force of social development on all levels. The right of citizens to organise, to band together, to work on their ideals, on charity, on the progression of their political values, or their deeply-held religious views. NGOs can be formed about so many different things and... 27/01/2021 | 16:46:56 Dear colleagues, Mr Navalny's arrest and the massive public protests that followed are an important moment in Russia's political life. They attracted attention from around the world. We must take this into account in our work. The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights is currently preparing a report on the question of political prisoners in Russia for which I am the rapporteur. The situation of Mr Navalny was already a central issue in this report. Mr Navalny has won seven cases against... 30/01/2020 | 12:38:35 Thank you, Mister President. Now we come to the essential heart of this report and that is that the court's findings correspond with the definition of this assembly. It fulfills the requirements. The European Convention of Human Rights does not include the term "political prisoners". So, like I said in my speech, there's no specific reason why the court would use that specific language. But if you imprison people on political grounds as punishment for their political participation that is the... 30/01/2020 | 12:30:13 Thank you, Mr President. Dear colleagues, I want to thank you all for an interesting debate and I would especially like to thank Mr Aleksander POCIEJ and Mr Stefan SCHENNACH for their support and for their kind words about my report. As to the criticism that my work has faced by some colleagues here in this room, I would like to touch upon a few points. First of all, that there is no universally agreed definition of political prisoners. Perhaps you might be right, dear colleagues, but this... 30/01/2020 | 11:12:12 Thank you, Mr President. Dear colleagues, Azerbaijan’s membership of the Council of Europe is in crisis. No other country has left such serious problems unresolved for the entire duration of its membership. No other country has ignored an unprecedented ruling of the European Court of Human Rights that it had refused to implement an earlier court judgment. Azerbaijan is willfully defying the authority of the Court and the Committee of Ministers. It is challenging the very purpose of the... 29/01/2020 | 17:20:31 In terms of what this report actually means for our organisation, I think it is a fundamental, a foundational step for us. One step of many that we need to take so that the organs of this organisation can work more in unison, can have better cohesion, can work as one, together for our common values which are democracy, the rule of law and human rights. I think only that standing together other and creating this kind of combined procedure that we can all work on together, we can truly be...