24/06/2024 | 17:08:37 Thank you very much, Madam President. Yeah, rules of procedure are made to co-ordinate our work, to avoid disputes, and if there are disputes, to help us to settle them and the changes we debate today have been discussed for a quite long time. I want to thank Ms Ingjerd Schie SCHOU for her long breath and her patience with us because it was not easy. But to be honest, it might not be totally over, the changes of the rules of procedure, because besides robust rules, we also need the engagement... 18/04/2024 | 18:59:42 I would like to start my reflections in Iran, the Iran that has a major interest in destabilising the entire region. Last weekend's missile attack on Israel is just a small piece of the puzzle. In addition, Iran systematically and permanently supports Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah with weapons, money, know-how and logistics. The calculation works, because if we look at the fact that Hamas deliberately sacrifices Palestinian lives by using people as living shields when they are attacked... 18/04/2024 | 15:52:09 Thank you very much. One of the proposals that Sunna had made in the draft opinion is to add a specific article in the Convention on parliamentary involvement. And I couldn't agree more on that. Stating that national parliaments should participate in the review of the implementation measures at national level and that he has Assembly should regularly take stock on the implementation of the Convention, a provision that is already existing the Istanbul Convention. National parliaments are... 18/04/2024 | 10:52:32 Thank you very much. Who ignore the evidence of climate catastrophe and that it is made by men, by us, that ignores the responsibility to act, to act to safeguard our future and the future of the next generations. And we have to take influence, we have to take measures. And one of the ways, I think that's the best one, is the way to human rights, to a safe and healthy and sustainable environment, and everything else will mean an end of civilisation, as we know it probably, and end of humanity... 17/04/2024 | 16:44:47 Thank you, Mr Theodoros ROUSOPOULOS. I remember very well, it was directly after the expulsion of Russia from the Council of Europe when we started to debate and had concerns about how Russia would handle their ban on the death penalty. And that was indeed a very interesting theoretical debate but it was a very abstract debate because the factual debate is that the death penalty and extra-judicial convictions are existing in Russia. And it is not just the death of Alexei Navalny that proves... 16/04/2024 | 18:59:14 Thank you very much, Theodoros. The decision we hopefully will take tonight, is, it was mentioned, is a start and not the end of a process, and of course Kosovo still has to do a lot of work to improve the human rights situation in the country. What is for clear that the beneficiaries of this process at the end will be the citizens of Kosovo, because they will be protected by the European Court of Human Rights; they will enjoy all their human rights under the umbrella of the European Court... 15/04/2024 | 13:04:51 Yes, there have not been any contradictions, I can make it briefly, I think. Just outline that, of course, we see a lot of challenges when it comes to our democratic system and I think that we really should focus on the issues that we can do or improve within our organisation and for instance, the Venice Commission is one of the really important institutions of the Council of Europe, of course, has to be equipped with enough resources to give opinions in due time so that we really can work on... 15/04/2024 | 12:38:37 Thank you very much, Mister President. In my introduction to the progress report, I would like to highlight three different issues. The first of all is the Middle East conflict. We had it on the Agenda in January. We will have it on the agenda this week in this session. Of course, the escalation in the night from Saturday to Sunday via the frightening attacks by Iran really risk a wildfire in the region. The Middle East is already very fragile and whatever increases hostilities doesn't help... 25/01/2024 | 17:17:39 Mister President, There are hundreds of political prisoners in Belarus and Mr Viktar Barushka is one of these hundreds of political prisoners. He is a businessman in his 30s and he was convicted to seven years in prison. What was his crime? His crime was that he went home after a Sunday protest. He walked home after a Sunday protest and after his detention he was beaten really badly by riot police and after that he had to spend 12 days in a special intensive care unit in a hospital. There are... 24/01/2024 | 18:52:24 Thank you very much, Madam Chairwoman. Before I was elected to the Austrian National Council, I was a member of the State Parliament of the Federal State of Vienna. From there I was sent to the so-called Vienna Prison Commission, and we visited a prison in Vienna or around Vienna once a month unannounced. I was always interested in taking a look there, too. What is the human rights situation of those people who have been legally deprived of their human right to freedom by a court of law...