01/10/2025 | 18:49:39 Colleagues, With this report we contribute to one of the key goals set at the Reykjavík summit to find ways to co-operate with Russian and Belarusian human rights defenders, democratic forces, free media and independent civil society. Let me add, without putting them at additional risk. The decision we take today to establish a platform for exchange with Russian democratic forces is a very, very important step. It gives the representatives the opportunity to participate in our substantive... 01/10/2025 | 11:32:34 Thank you very much. Today, I do not want to speak about numbers. I want to speak but about a person, Iryna DANYLOVYCH. Iryna DANYLOVYCH is a daughter of Crimea, a trained medical professional, a trade union leader and a journalist. Her only "crime" was to speak the truth. For this, she was kidnapped by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), locked in a basement for ten days, tortured and threatened with death. Today, she is serving nearly seven years in a Russian... 29/09/2025 | 12:08:48 Thank you, Mr Theodoros ROUSOPOULOS. Dear colleagues, allow me to address you not only as speaker on behalf of my group, but also as the Chair of the Committee on the Election of Judges to the European Court of Human Rights. You all know that originally on the agenda there was foreseen a voting on a judge in respect of Cyprus tomorrow, which disappeared from the agenda. I first want to explain why it was so. We heard in our September session the three candidates and then we had a debate and... 27/06/2025 | 10:04:38 Thank you very much, Theodoros. I want to speak about Belarus, because I think that, because of all the wars and all the severe problems we face in our own member countries, we often tend to forget about other regions in Europe, which are also very important. And we all welcomed, of course, the release of 14 prisoners recently, among them Siarhei TIKHANOVSKY, which is, of course, very good and a very good example. But we should also be aware that since the release of these 14 prisoners, 20... 26/06/2025 | 17:58:10 Thank you very much. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2024 Democracy Index, Georgia recorded the fourth-largest deterioration in democracy worldwide and the sharpest decline in the South Caucasus region. For over 200 days, ongoing protests have been taking place, demanding new elections. The government led by Georgian Dream (GD) has responded with a series of repressive measures, such as restrictive legislative changes, increased criminal prosecution and sometimes harsh... 26/06/2025 | 16:18:29 Thank you very much. Of course, due to time constraints, I will not respond to everybody, but thank you very much for this really fruitful and rich debate. And let me start with Ms Céline THIÉBAULT-MARTINEZ, also thanking you for your valuable additions and amendments to this report. And you are absolutely right, equality is not cherry on the cream. Equality is something for every day and that's exactly what makes the substance of civilisation – equality. To Ms Albana VOKSHI, I just wanted to... 26/06/2025 | 15:16:20 Thank you very much, Theodoros. "Your body, my choice." "Your body, my choice" is a quote from a male US nationalist, a Holocaust denier. I think that his name isn't worth mentioning. But his quote went viral on X last winter, and I think that attacks against the rights of women couldn't be summarised more concisely, as in this quote. "Your body, my choice" expresses male supremacy and female submission. I associate it with slavery because it's also about degrading women's bodies to... 24/06/2025 | 16:30:21 The illegal war of aggression of the Russian Federation in Ukraine will maybe be the best-documented ever that we have. I have had the opportunity to visit during the Easter weekend in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Bucha. And in Kharkiv, I visited, among others, a drone cemetery where a prosecutor is working on the production of evidence. What missile has done what damage, where and when, what was the exact trajectory, what military unit was in charge at the origin of the trajectory? And how did the... 24/06/2025 | 10:41:43 Yeah, thank you very much. The Court interprets the Convention, and that makes it a living document; and since it entered into force, for instance, Article 14 on anti-discrimination has been developed tremendously. And we are also now all witnesses to an emerging right to live in a healthy, clean and sustainable environment. This development, of course, is important as it reflects social progress. And also debates about the interpretation are legitimate, if they are serious and if they uphold... 10/04/2025 | 12:21:54 Thank you very much, Mister President, and thank you, Titus CORLĂŢEAN, for this really important report. It is clear that we speak about one legal space, when it comes to the member states of the European Union (EU) within the Council of Europe, which is quite harmonised. Let me also focus on the implications of the participation of the European Union at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). This will help unfold the human rights protection umbrella over all people living in European...