01/10/2026 | 11:50:28 Dear colleagues, I thank the rapporteur Ms Aurora FLORIDIA for this wonderful report and I fully support the draft resolution. Armed conflicts, geopolitical competition and growing security concerns are putting increasing pressure on global climate efforts, weakening climate commitments, delaying implementation and straining multilateral co-operation. Yet climate change does not wait for more favourable political conditions. Delaying action today risks irreversible damage tomorrow... 30/09/2026 | 18:12:46 Dear colleagues, I thank the rapporteur for this report. Accountability for the most heinous crimes requires an independent International Criminal Court (ICC). Attacks on that independence threaten the international justice system and our core values. Our Assembly must condemn intimidation unequivocally. No judge or prosecutor should have to weigh up a lawful decision against their family's safety. The report records US sanctions against half of the ICC's judges and its entire prosecutorial... 29/09/2026 | 20:15:46 Thank you, Madam President. Dear colleagues, I thank the rapporteurs for their work. Greece's prolonged failure to implement the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights concerning the rights of the Turkish minority in Western Thrace demands our attention. Tens of thousands of Greek citizens belonging to the Turkish minority have been denied their identity and religious and educational rights for decades. The leading Bekir-Ousta group of cases concerns refusals to register... 22/04/2026 | 18:15:38 Dear colleagues, I thank the rapporteur for this important report. For the Council of Europe, the abolition of the death penalty is non-negotiable. It is central to our defence of life, dignity and justice that must never become irreversible. Israel’s death penalty law must be condemned in the strongest terms. We oppose capital punishment everywhere, but this case is especially grave: it embeds the death penalty in an apartheid legal order, imposed by an occupying power on an occupied people... 21/04/2026 | 20:38:48 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) I thank Mr Francesco VERDUCCI for this timely report. Freedom of religion or belief is fundamental to democracy. It protects the right to believe, to practise freely, to change religion, or to have no religion at all. But this freedom is hollow if people fear entering a place of worship, wearing a religious symbol, or being judged, excluded, or attacked because of their identity. Since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza, antisemitism and... 02/10/2025 | 12:46:33 Dear colleagues, Israel shows no restraint in Gaza: indiscriminate bombings, obstruction of aid, killing of journalists, UN staff, and human rights defenders, alongside relentless expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank. This is also a war on truth. International journalists are banned, forcing Palestinian reporters, starving, displaced, grieving, to document their own destruction. Israel killed 246 journalists, often in their homes with their families, deliberately silenced before... 30/09/2025 | 11:52:01 Dear President, Dear colleagues, As a founding member of the Council of Europe, Türkiye remains firmly committed to our shared values: democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, principles enshrined in our constitution and upheld by the judiciary. We welcome constructive criticism as it strengthens democratic institutions. Objective and balanced assessments help reforms; double standards and prejudices, including historic prejudices as we've just heard from several colleagues here today... 30/01/2025 | 17:28:34 Dear Chairwoman, dear colleagues, I have included this recommendation in the resolution in order to support women who undertake childcare, elderly care, disability care, in the absence of enough sufficient, let's say employment opportunities or sufficient childcare infrastructure. So this concerns more the disadvantaged communities, disadvantaged families and supporting them. However, I do also see the point that my colleague Ms Petra BAYR is making, which is relevant in countries which are... 30/01/2025 | 17:19:04 I would like to thank all my colleagues for their constructive and insightful contributions, which demonstrate our shared commitment to gender equality. The discussion has highlighted progress in some areas while reaffirming how much work remains to be done. It has also confirmed the importance of implementing the recommendations in the resolution. I would also like to express my gratitude to the Secretariat, in particular Ms Penelope DENU, for their invaluable support in preparing this... 30/01/2025 | 16:03:59 Dear President, Dear colleagues, According to the World Bank, 2.4 billion women today do not have the same economic rights as men, and “geopolitical tensions and the fragmentation of world trade threaten to roll back decades of advances in women’s economic empowerment”. The OECD reports that 58% of women in OECD member states are employed compared to 73% of men, and only one-third of managerial posts are held by women. Women in full-time work earn 12% less than men, compared to 19% in 1995...