23/06/2021 | 17:06:54 Thank you, Madam President. Dear colleagues, There are no doubts that political participation of women is a necessary precondition for a well-functioning democracy. Since we’re representing the various countries: both mature and young democracies, we have to differentiate the stage and what can be considered as an achievement. I’m here representing the national parliament of Ukraine with almost 21% of women. This is the highest percentage of any year since the 30 years of Ukraine’s... 23/06/2021 | 10:47:18 Distinguished Assembly Members, Belarus has always been a hard negotiator for the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly. After Mr Lukashenko had refused to abolish the death penalty in late 1990s, the dialogue between the Assembly and the official Minsk was frozen in fact. The recent accident in May 2021 was the logical development of no reaction of the democratic West to the anti-presidential protests, which have been ongoing since summer of 2020. Because of the censorship, which... 22/06/2021 | 12:58:11 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) I congratulate the Rapporteur with the excellent and very acute report and very relevant drafts of the Resolution and Recommendation. These are very right words to define the scope of the Report - a wide right to know the unbiased information, so that to make people able to make the thought-through choice. The citizen’s civil and political right to be actively informed of all aspects regarding all stages of the policy-making and... 21/06/2021 | 12:24:45 Thank you, Madam Chair, Dear colleagues, First of all let me extend my congratulations to all three rapporteurs, Ms Petra BAYR, Mr Alfred HEER and Mr Aleksander POCIEJ, and also to our other colleagues who contributed to the very impressive work on the Progress Report. I'd like to touch upon a few topics. Firstly, in early April I had an opportunity to be a part of the election observation mission to Bulgaria. One of my take-aways was the exercise of the voting machines tested by 25% of... 22/04/2021 | 13:05:10 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Distinguished members of the Assembly, Through recent decade we have been witnessing how the Kremlin kills the Russian opposition in literal meaning of the verb “to kill”. Would we and the rest of the civilized world keep silent on Alexei Navalny case, this politician will stay in danger to be killed the next. Yesterday, Russian police have arrested key supporters of Alexei Navalny and cowardly begun closing central squares in Moscow and... 21/04/2021 | 13:14:06 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Dear Rapporteur, dear Assembly members, I congratulate the Ms. Louis on the excellent Report, as well as the draft Resolution and draft Recommendation with the cornerstone idea to launch the international investigation on the violation of human rights in Belarus. I’m grateful for the underlining the role of Ukraine in protecting the human rights activists fleeing from neighboring Belarus. Unfortunately, the political prosecutions and... 20/04/2021 | 11:26:02 Dear rapporteur, dear Assembly members, I congratulate Mr Tiny KOX on his work and his topic choice. The comprehensive human rights challenges of the current world are very clearly emerging in relation to environment and digital transformations. That is why it is very important to stick to the fundamentals of the Council of Europe, which has to contain enough flexibility to address mentioned environment and digital transformations and newly emerging challenges. The flexibility is the... 20/04/2021 | 09:46:21 Dear Colleagues, I want to start my speech with a reminder of the role the Assembly played during the flu pandemic of 2008-2009. The Assembly in particular argued the approach taken by the World Health Organisation in the estimate of the pandemic threshold and medical treatment method. Did the Assembly bring an added value to the process? Yes. Without a doubt. The only point for criticism was that the Assembly entered the game, so to say, too late. To this end I want to congratulate the... 19/04/2021 | 18:12:59 Thank you. Dear Colleagues, Dear Ms KOVÁCS, First of all, I would like to congratulate the rapporteur on her draft Resolution and the draft Recommendation centred on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, which Ukraine fully accessed in 1998. Without a doubt, the Convention is the instrument of international law bringing the implementation of its standards closer to people. I have to underline that the Ukrainian authorities are very much aware of the diverse... 30/01/2020 | 16:58:57 Thank you Mr Chairman, Distinguished members of the Assembly, Dear guests, I congratulate both rapporteurs on the excellent reports. I will stop on Mr COAKER's report. He managed to pull together many-sided data and draw conclusions aimed at strengthening the rule of law, democracy and human rights across Europe in the understanding of Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Europe has become a major destination for migrants long ago and the Assembly underlined in its numerous...