31/01/2025 | 11:01:02 Thank you very much, Mister Chairman. Ms Andrea EDER-GITSCHTHALER, who is the rapporteur of this very important report to protect the human rights of older persons, regrets that she can't be here with us today, but she is, for half a year, chairing the Federal Council of the Austrian Parliament, and they have sittings this week and so, I will do my best to present her report on "Overcoming age-based discrimination against older persons". So let me start with the obvious. And the obvious is... 30/01/2025 | 11:42:47 Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. There are many important and good reasons why it is important to have free and fair elections in Belarus. Probably the most important reason of all is to establish the rule of law. The rule of law that allows free trade unions to operate, for example. Last week I met with the chairman of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions, Alyaksandr. He was imprisoned; he escaped. There is no freedom of assembly. Those who want to represent people and fight for... 29/01/2025 | 16:47:06 Thank you very much dear Theodoros, In any substantive challenge to credentials, the role of our Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs is to consider whether the correct procedures have been followed within the rules, and to consider whether the proposal in the draft resolution complies with the rules of procedure. So, our report is not on content, but just on procedure. The proposal in the report and draft resolution of the Monitoring Committee is for the... 28/01/2025 | 10:50:13 Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much, Theodoros. Mister President of the Court, Mr Marko BOŠNJAK. The UN framework for a sustainable future, the Sustainable Development Goals in their goal 16, focus on strong institutions, including access to justice, which is key in institutions, but also key to meet all the other goals. Also the pact of the future of the UN is clear on this and well functioning courts are substantial in this regard. Knowing other international courts and how they... 03/10/2024 | 18:18:42 Many thanks firstly to Simon for the great report, thanks to Aurora for presenting it, and thirdly to the young activists for the impressive presentation of their important project today. I would like to talk about something that is not very exotic, namely free school meals from small-scale farmers. I believe that it can be a real win-win situation. Both for the transformation of food systems and for the right to food. We know that child labor is on the rise. In our region, in Europe, around... 02/10/2024 | 10:41:20 Yes, thank you very much. I would also like to start by thanking Ms Thórhildur Sunna ÆVARSDÓTTIR for this important report, but of course, also Mr Julian ASSANGE, not only for his courage over all these years, but also for finding his first way here to us in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe three months after his release. I think this is also important because it is a sign of the relevance of the Council of Europe when it comes to fighting for press freedom, which is... 01/10/2024 | 20:13:16 Thank you very much. I also would like to congratulate Max and Mariia for the report and the opinion. I think both are very well done. I would like to focus on two aspects or two amendments that came from the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination, namely, on the one hand, it was originally Amendment 11 and Amendment 14. Amendment 11 calls for considering a Vienna process-type dialogue with all relevant human rights interlocutors in Iran and abroad. So what is the Vienna process? That's... 01/10/2024 | 12:56:02 Yesterday here, Mr Vladimir KARA-MURZA, and this morning in the Committee on Legal Affairs, Mr Julian ASSANGE, have, I believe, made it clear that the Council of Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly really do have an impact, really can make a difference. I see many other areas where this is also the case whether it is the question of enforcing the human right to live in a healthy environment or whether it is that artificial intelligence must not undermine human rights, whether it is that we... 28/06/2024 | 10:55:33 Thank you very much, Mr President, Mr Simon MOUTQUIN quite rightly mentioned in his introduction that the Council of Europe is part of a larger multilateral system. And I would like to mention the United Nations in two different ways. Firstly, you probably know that the Summit of the Future will take place in New York in September this year, which of course also has future generations specifically in mind in the document that has been presented so far. And what I found very interesting is... 27/06/2024 | 18:26:47 The Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group condemns the atrocities committed by Hamas on the 7 October and afterwards, and it calls for the immediate release of the Israeli hostages. Our group also welcomes calls for a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas given the thousands of innocent victims and the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. Our group shares the vision of lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians. We recognise that Hamas is the catalyst for the...