24/01/2024 | 18:48:22 Thank you, Madam President. Yesterday we were discussing whether to use the term "barbaric" or "undignified", "ignoble", sorry. Torture is both, and we can use both adjectives. I'd like to thank the rapporteur, our excellent colleague Mr Constantinos EFSTATHIOU, for this excellent report, which really takes stock of an essential element, an essential value which lies at the heart of this Organisation's activities, a legal obligation which is often a constitutional obligation, he reminds us of... 23/01/2024 | 18:12:13 Thank you, Madam Chairman. Obviously, this debate is taking place with a great deal of emotion - and that's understandable - but I believe, on the contrary, Mr BISMUTH, that the report delivered to us by the rapporteur Mr FASSINO is a credit to this Assembly, because he delivers an extremely balanced report, which looks at problems from both sides and in an extremely objective way. It's important for us to be able to debate it, albeit with emotion at times, but also by looking at the reality... 23/01/2024 | 16:29:27 Thank you, Mister President. Mister President, I'm one of the two co-rapporteurs of the Monitoring Committee of this Assembly on Montenegro. Your country has been in a post monitoring dialogue since 2015. I want to congratulate the country for the progress made in the recent weeks or months, because we have been quite impassioned in this Assembly to see progress in the four main topics that the monitoring report was pointing to: the reform of the judicial system, the protection of journalists... 23/01/2024 | 15:33:03 Thank you, Mr President, for the commitments you have made and for your important words on multilateralism. Direct dialogue is also important in a peace process, and my country, Switzerland, has often had the opportunity to host discussions on the future of Cyprus, and would obviously be delighted to do so again. Can we be optimistic about the near future of such direct dialogues? I'd be interested to hear what you have to say on the subject. And then the second question: you rightly put a... 13/10/2023 | 10:54:28 Thank you, Madam President. "A thing is not just because it is law, but it must be law because it is just" (Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu). I wanted to start with this quote, because that's what we're talking about today. The rapporteur put it extremely well. It's about the separation of powers, checks and balances. Mr Pieter OMTZIGT's report is based on serious work. Firstly, that of the Venice Commission, to which the Committee asked for an opinion, and then within the... 11/10/2023 | 18:23:54 We are truly at the heart of our Organization's activity, namely the defense of fundamental rights and freedoms, and this is the essential role of the Council of Europe. During the preparation of this Report, the Committee held two hearings: one in Bern in 2022 with an expert from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and an MEP who is a member of the PEGA Committee; and another hearing in Paris in December last year with three targeted victims of Pegasus or... 11/10/2023 | 15:56:15 Thank you, Mister Chairman. Humanity had learned important lessons from the terrible conflicts of the late 19th and 20th centuries. The Council of Europe is a powerful witness to this. In the 21st century, these lessons seem to be fading from our memories and our hearts. In Ukraine, alas; in Nagorno-Karabakh, alas; in northern Kosovo, alas. Three crises in our Assembly, debates also this week. And in Israel, alas. What's happening there is shattering our hearts and minds. Terrorist attacks by... 09/10/2023 | 15:48:10 Thank you, Mr Chairman. I would like to thank the rapporteurs for their reports. This activity report shows the importance of the work carried out by this Organisation and by this Assembly. For my part, I have had the honour of chairing the Legal Affairs Committee for almost two years now, and its reports at each part-session basically underline the importance of the Council of Europe's conventions, of the entire legal framework on which this Organisation is based, with reports that are... 21/06/2023 | 19:56:26 Yes, that's right, Madam President, thank you. Madam Chair, The Committee has given its unanimous support to the rapporteur's precise and balanced work. As we have seen today, the issues dealt with in this report are the subject of lively discussion in the United Kingdom, which we know to be an ancient, vibrant and exemplary democracy. These discussions relate as much to the draft Charter of Fundamental Rights, which it seems may not be adopted, as to the Illegal Immigration Bill. It is... 19/06/2023 | 17:00:23 Thank you, Mister Chairman. We've already had the opportunity to have dialogues and discuss our disagreements. Thank you for being here to discuss these disagreements, but they run deep. Back then, we were talking about the situation of LGBT communities in your country who are under pressure. Today, the disagreement is about what peace means, because you talked a lot about interests but little about values. This organisation is about values, but it's also about Europe's interests, because it...