26/01/2011 Session
Strasbourg, 26.01.2011 – The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today decided to give three delegations – those of Montenegro, San Marino and Serbia – until the opening of the April session (11-15 April 2011) to appoint at least one woman Representative or their voting rights will be suspended. Any ban would stay in place until a female Representative is appointed.
The credentials of all three delegations were challenged on the first day of the session following new rules – aimed at improving gender-balance in the Assembly – which require national delegations to have at least one Representative from “the under-represented sex”.
PACE is made up of politically-balanced delegations from the national parliaments of the Council of Europe’s 47 member states. It holds four week-long plenary sessions per year.