20/06/2023 | 16:12:55 Thank you very much. First of all, I'd like to congratulate the rapporteur on doing an excellent job. I would like to salute Ms TSIKHANOUSKAYA for all she's doing. I wonder if Mr Sergei Tikhanovsky realises quite how lucky he is to have you as his wife. This is important to talk about, because Russia is culturally, politically, economically, and militarily strangling Belarus. And the diaspora of Belarusians who are in exile is essential for keeping the spirit of the real Belarus alive. They... 22/06/2022 | 10:35:48 Thank you very much. First of all, I would like to thank Ms Petra BAYR and Ms Ute STEYER in particular for a very interesting discourse. I have three reasons for speaking to you here this morning. First, the principle itself, which I think is self-evident. Antisemitism is clearly wrong. Secondly, personal: on my mother's side, one of my great grandfathers, in the wake of Kristallnacht in 1938, put his name at the head of a petition to raise money to get Kindertransport children out of Germany... 25/04/2022 | 18:19:17 I would like to start by thanking Mr Dimitri HOUBRON very much for a very timely and comprehensive report. This is a global problem. It affects us all, every nation, but it is global. The only way we can tackle this is by tackling it globally as well as nationally. To prioritise either over the other will not and does not work. The online world has no borders. It recognises no borders, it respects no borders. What it does respect is profitability. While welcoming this report, I do feel it's... 28/09/2021 | 19:16:05 Thank you. I shall try and do my best to represent men. I would like to congratulate the rapporteur on a report which is extremely useful, not only in helping to define what constitutes "honour"-based abuse, but it also illustrates how much further we need to go to tackle it effectively. I think we can all agree that "honour"-based abuse in the 21st century is a disgrace. But it is an unfortunate fact that most of us would struggle to describe it in great detail or to lay out clear strategies... 21/04/2021 | 12:27:47 Yes can you hear me? I congratulate the two rapporteurs on two excellent and uncomfortably timely reports. I previously spoke on Belarus during our January 2020 session – a coronavirus lifetime ago – to debate on the progress report on the November 2019 parliamentary elections. The PACE monitoring mission was headed by Lord David BLENCATHRA and I had the privilege of being one of its members. That progress report informs and echoes the first of the two reports we are discussing today. I... 27/01/2020 | 15:51:40 I had the great privilege to be part of the monitoring team to Belarus and I'd like to thank my fellow monitors, the support team and my noble friend, Lord BLENCATHRA. This was the second monitoring mission I've had the privilege of being on in 2019 and they couldn't be more different. The first was the Ukraine, the presidential election, President TRUMP's new telephone pal. There was a high level of engagement, it was a genuine contest and there was a real sense of change. Belarus, by... 02/10/2019 | 18:02:18 Thank you. I would also like to congratulate the rapporteur for a timely and very well-informed report. Terrorism, unfortunately, has become a fact of modern life for many of our member states. While huge focus, funds, and efforts have gone into trying to prevent and forestall terrorist incidents — and quite rightly so — more recently we began to acknowledge the pain, trauma and profound shock and grief experienced by the victims of terrorist incidents. Beyond acknowledgement, we have also... 26/06/2019 | 10:50:54 Thank you, Madam President I would also like to thank and congratulate the rapporteur on her thoughtful and, above all, balanced report. Balanced because it focuses both on what is wrong and what appears to be successful and promising practices to mitigate or even eliminate unnecessary coercion. All of our countries can learn from and should reflect on initiatives such as the personal Ombudsman support model in Sweden, which is firmly client- and patient-focused, the mental health equivalent... 10/04/2019 | 10:32:44 The Council of Europe was set up in the aftermath of the havoc wreaked across Europe and Asia by the racist rhetoric, military conflict, and industrialised euthanasia that gave rise to the legal definition of genocide. Who can forget the flickering black and white images of Hitler and Goebbels raising hate speech to the level of a poisonously effective artform, mesmerising the masses and normalising the denigration and vilification of fellow human beings? I am sure our founders hoped and... 24/01/2019 | 17:13:17 I welcome the report, and I note the largely satisfactory and positive honouring of obligations in Iceland, so I will focus my remarks on Italy. I must declare an interest as I have the great good fortune to be married to an Italian. I have a deep love and affection for both our countries, but that does not make me blind to what is less than perfect and what needs to be changed and improved. In the United Kingdom, we are witnessing a dialogue of the deaf about our relationship with the...