29/09/2014 Session
"Human rights must be above political agendas and national specificities," President Anne Brasseur said in her opening speech of the PACE autumn session in Strasbourg.
"Our post- Second World War European human rights architecture is very precious as it seeks to create a human rights culture and with it a respectful dialogue, inclusive co-operation and mutual confidence as the best remedy we have found against hatred, oppression and fear", she said.
"The crisis in Ukraine is a flagrant example of the threat to human rights in times of violence and conflict. It is also a reminder of the role the Council of Europe and our Assembly have to play in establishing long-lasting democratic peace through respectful dialogue and co-operation – the mission that the founding fathers of our organisation had foreseen and a mission that is still relevant in today’s Europe," she stressed.
"But there are other threats in Europe today that are far less obvious at first sight, albeit devastating in their effects. They undermine the very foundations of our democratic societies. Growing manifestations of neo-Nazism and the rise of neo-Nazi parties and movements in Europe, some of which have entered parliament at national or EU level, are more than worrying in this regard. As the draft resolution on the “Counteraction to manifestations of neo-Nazism” that we will discuss tomorrow rightly points out, the rise of extremisms and xenophobia is not an isolated phenomenon, but a problem of pan-European dimension", Anne Brasseur concluded.