23/06/2026 | 19:22:58 Thank you, Mister President. Thank you, everyone, for contributing to this debate, and especially thank you, dear Mr Jacques PARIS, these were some of the most remarkable words I ever heard in my life. And I am impressed by the energy you have after all that has happened. And I can promise you that after the debate you've heard, we take your energy with us and we will try to create something good out of it, something good out of it for the people of Iran, to have a pathway to freedom and also... 23/06/2026 | 17:54:35 Thank you, Mister President, Ladies and gentlemen, When our Assembly elected me as rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran back in January, I could not have foreseen the darkest of times that the Iranian people are now facing. “We no longer have the strength to fight,” a human rights activist from Iran, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of the regime, told me a week ago. This sense of powerlessness stems from a regime within the country which, in January this year, executed... 23/06/2026 | 11:52:21 Thank you, Ms President. Dear colleagues, I am very grateful for the analysis here, we share and we are very clear with, and I also thank the rapporteur for his opening remarks. But I miss one important point in our discussion. I miss the point what the result of our analysis is. And I think that we also have to change the foreign policy of our own national governments towards Türkiye. Because I have the impression that sometimes our national governments mistake what politeness and diplomacy... 23/04/2026 | 11:51:39 Thank you, Madam President. Dear colleagues, It is an honour for me to speak after our colleague Mr Bernard SABELLA from the Palestinian Legislative Council, because I believe the voice we just heard is a voice of someone who devoted and devotes his entire life to building peace and a better future for everyone in the Middle East. And this while so many in the Middle East want all of us to believe that there is not a good path to a future for the people. Hamas, Hezbollah and far-right... 22/04/2026 | 17:57:27 Thank you, Madam President. Ladies and gentlemen, Those who criticise the Knesset's majority decision in favour of a death penalty for Palestinians are absolutely right. And those who deduce from this that we must of course question Israel's observer status if the Supreme Court does not overturn this law are also absolutely right. I would just like to warn against one thing. I would just like to warn against starting to pretend that a development is taking place there that would be impossible... 28/01/2026 | 10:43:06 Thank you, Mister President. Ladies and gentlemen, Lowering the voting age, involving young people in Europe and setting up a new Council of Europe youth centre in the Black Sea region are all good things. However, I believe that the strength of our youth policy is measured by two other key questions: Firstly, on the question of whether our national governments are also prepared to raise the necessary funds for the youth work that our Council of Europe does so magnificently. Secondly – and I... 02/10/2025 | 12:35:37 Thank you, Mr President. Ladies and gentlemen, In one respect, I am somewhat irritated by our debate here. I have the impression from some of the speeches that it is not about the people in Gaza, but about ourselves. The Irish struggle for independence or the British war effort in the Second World War are then brought up. But this debate about ourselves does not do justice to the terrible situation for the hostages in the Hamas tunnels, for the innocent children in Gaza, for the people who... 30/09/2025 | 17:58:07 So, colleagues, this really is now a very serious amendment because I am so happy that we, as the Parliamentary Assembly, we are committed to expanding our relations with Kazakhstan. And I really want to see more relations with Kazakhstan. But we have to face the fact that there is transnational persecution by the authorities from Kazakhstan, in particular a case from Belgium. I think that we need to create a safe space for human rights activists, for journalists, for oppositional... 30/09/2025 | 17:11:06 Thank you, Mr President. Thank you, Mr Zsolt NÉMETH, for this report on the partnership between the Council of Europe and Kazakhstan, which is a great opportunity. It opens up avenues towards the strengthening of democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights. That is why we in the Socialists, Democrats and Greens (SOC) Group want to make sure that this co-operation is constructive. For us, constructive means recognising the progress that has been made without losing sight of... 30/09/2025 | 11:25:28 Thank you, Mr President. Ladies and gentlemen, On 27 March, Enes HOCAOĞULLARI stood here in this Hall and, as his country's youth delegate to the Congress of Regions, denounced the erosion of democracy in Türkiye. He spent a month in prison for this and is now on trial. We are witnessing an unprecedented erosion of democracy in a member state of the Council of Europe. Stefan SCHENNACH has mentioned the proceedings against the opposition party, the Republican People's Party, or CHP, where a...