24/01/2022 | 17:23:15 Dear Colleagues, Mr President, Let me first applaud both rapporteurs on their excellent work, which tackles many important yet difficult issues. Ms Jennifer DE TEMMERMAN's report is especially valuable in its aim to find a balance between topics thought previously incompatible. Our honourable colleague has made a great attempt to marry environmental rights as economic interests and build a bridge between the need of present and future generations. The discussion we are having this afternoon... 29/09/2021 | 11:59:40 Thank you, President, thank you dear rapporteurs and dear colleagues, for all the powerful statements we have been hearing this morning in this room. I'm so happy that this House has an almost unanimous understanding of the urgency of the issue at hand. We truly must act now in order to continue to enjoy our basic human rights, the right to life and the right to health, in order to live in a comfortable and secure environment, and in order to leave our children a safe and sound planet – very... 28/09/2021 | 19:12:25 Thank you, President. On behalf of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, I thank the Rapporteur who has tackled the truly disturbing and absolutely unacceptable phenomenon. "Honour" crimes are perpetrated by those close to the victim, [they are] premeditated and organised mostly by men who seek revenge for their hurt "honour." "Honour" crimes - those which allow claims of hurt feelings and disappointment to be mitigating circumstances in courts that consider cases of marital rape... 28/09/2021 | 17:54:51 Thank you, President. Dear colleagues, Ms Nicole TRISSE and Ms Petra BAYR have presented us with an excellent report with a lot of data in it but which actually takes our discussion way beyond regulating the work within PACE. It is no secret that PACE has long been looked up to by national parliaments as an Assembly with good an effective practices. Practices which merit being transposed into national systems. Practices of equality and inclusivity of the decision-making process, for example... 28/09/2021 | 15:57:48 Thank you. Madam Secretary, First, I kindly thank you for your participation in the Crimean Platform in Kyiv in August this year. Your support for the dialogue around ending human rights atrocities resulting from Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea is immeasurable, as is your support for all dialogue platforms in Europe. At the same time, I would like to ask you how we here at the PACE may improve and diversify dialogue instruments so that the dialogue at this Assembly is not reduced to... 28/09/2021 | 12:24:21 Thank you Madam President, I would like to join in the praise of the author of this report who truly did a remarkable job in presenting us with an all-encompassing study of the issues of socio-economic inequalities across Europe. This report proves, yet again, that economic, social, and political inequalities are interlinked and mutually reinforcing. The short-term simple solution is of course to ensure higher wages and more jobs at national state level, accompanied by a fairly... 28/01/2021 | 13:19:41 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) I definitely agree with Frank Schwabe that for the last 2 years have been exactly like ground hog day. Where time and time again a small group of very concerned states is obstinately pointing out to violations by one single very big state. Russia is the single major violator of the Convention and Statute. A country guilty of a whole list of international law breaches, which include aggression, war crimes and human rights crimes... 27/01/2021 | 19:03:59 Thank you, Mister Speaker. Thank you also to the Rapporteur who has so carefully put together this report. In fact, the role of NGOs is crucial in protecting the fundamental values of the Council of Europe such as democracy, the rule of law, and human rights. Just like a free press and independent courts, civil society organisations are the ones shedding light on violations that are often committed by respective national governments and imparting opinions which are alternative to those... 26/01/2021 | 12:59:44 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) First of all, I would like to thank Mr Rapporteur for drawing attention to such an important issue. It is up to each and every national State to respect its obligations under the Convention, to protect its people and to protect the rule of law. Courts play a paramount role in this process. This is why reform of the judiciary into an independent, unbiased and unprejudiced force is so important for all countries who find themselves under the... 26/01/2021 | 10:19:41 Thank you, colleagues, I will take a few minutes to explain how the convention and the European Court of human rights are the basic instruments for guarding the European peoples against violators who are often their own respective states. We have to look at the statistics to identify the countries who are most culpable of grave breaches of Human Rights. Year in year out the Russian Federation has led this list was the greatest number of cases admitted to and decided by the European Court of...