24/01/2022 Session
The discussions at the Standing Committee meeting in Rome (25-26 November 2021); the lists of candidates to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) in respect of several countries; the 2022 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize; Assembly expenditure for the 2022 financial year; co-operation with the European Parliament; and elections observations were among the items in the progress report of the PACE’s Bureau and Standing Committee, presented today by Rik Daems (Belgium, ALDE) in plenary session.
This report reviews the work and decisions of the Assembly's subsidiary bodies since the last session.
Since 2012, it includes annual statistics on the gender breakdown of Assembly positions, presented during the January session. These show, in particular, that in 2021 the total number of women members of PACE represented 37% – the same proportion as in 2020 – with national delegations often having a higher representation rate of women than national parliaments. The representation of women as rapporteurs remained proportionally low (29%), dropping for the third consecutive year. On the basis of its Resolution 2394 (2021), PACE encourages the appointment of women to the more prominent echelons of the Assembly, where levels have decreased in recent years, the progress report points out.
The Assembly also discussed the observation of:
- the presidential and early parliamentary elections in Bulgaria (14 November 2021), on the basis of a report prepared by Alfred Heer (Switzerland, ALDE)
- and the parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan (28 November 2021), on the basis of a report prepared by Marina Berlinghieri (Italy, SOC).
“Over the last months, we focussed our work on two key elements, namely combating violence against women, and gender equality as well as the issue of environment and human rights, and I hope that these topics will stay high on the agenda,” the Assembly’s outgoing President Rik Daems said, by congratulating Tiny Kox for his election as PACE President.