24/06/2013 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
"Whistleblowers" who disclose state wrongdoing in the public interest should be protected from retaliation, provided they acted in good faith and followed procedures, a PACE committee said in a draft resolution made public today.
13/06/2013 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Marina Schuster (Germany, ALDE), PACE General Rapporteur on the abolition of the death penalty, and Andres Herkel (Estonia, EPP/CD), Rapporteur on the situation in Belarus, have expressed deep concern at press reports according to which another death sentence was handed down in Belarus yesterday.
10/06/2013 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Following a fact-finding visit to Berlin to prepare his report on "the protection of minors against sectarian influence", the rapporteur of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights Rudy Salles has welcomed the German authorities' determination to combat the phenomenon of "sectarian abuse".
27/05/2013 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Corruption remains a major problem in Europe, posing a serious threat to the rule of law, according to the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee. In a draft resolution approved today in Izmir, the committee said corruption in the public sector took many forms...
27/05/2013 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE’s Legal Affairs Committee has given its green light to a proposal which would allow states’ highest courts to obtain opinions from the European Court of Human Rights on questions of principle relating to the interpretation or application of rights and freedoms defined in the European Convention and its protocols.
03/05/2013 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Marina Schuster (Germany, ALDE), PACE's newly-appointed General Rapporteur on the abolition of the death penalty, and Andres Herkel (Estonia, EPP/CD), rapporteur on the situation in Belarus, have expressed their dismay at the first death sentence handed down in Belarus since the execution of the purported Minsk metro bombers in 2012.
03/05/2013 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE co-rapporteurs for Ukraine, Mailis Reps (Estonia, ALDE) and Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin (Sweden, EPP/CD), as well as Pieter Omtzigt, (Netherlands, EPP/CD) Rapporteur of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights on “Keeping political and criminal responsibility separate”, urge the Ukrainian authorities to use all legal means to release Yulia Tymoshenko...
23/04/2013 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The majority of Council of Europe conventions are open to non-member States, but few of them have availed themselves of this opportunity. According to PACE’s Legal Affairs Committee, the Council of Europe should promote accession of relevant conventions by non-member States...
23/04/2013 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Politicians should be protected from criminal prosecution based on their political decisions, while being held to account for criminal acts or omissions – such as acting for personal gain or violating the fundamental rights of others – PACE’s Legal Affairs Committee has said.
04/04/2013 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE rapporteur Jordi Xuclà (Spain, ALDE) has welcomed the recent establishment of the Ombudsman institution in Turkey. “For a long time Turkey remained the biggest member state of the Council of Europe without an institution of this type. Now that it has been set up, it needs some time to become a mature and fully effective institution,” Mr Xuclà said.
26/03/2013 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Council of Europe’s Transfrontier Television Convention, a 1989 treaty in force in 34 countries which sets out basic common standards for European TV programmes to enable their free circulation across borders, needs to be modernised, according to PACE rapporteur James Clappison (United Kingdom, EDG).
20/03/2013 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
21 Council of Europe member states have problems of overcrowding in prisons, with more than 100 prisoners per 100 prison places. According to the Council of Europe’s statistics the countries where the situation is worst are Serbia, at 172 prisoners per 100 places, Italy at 153, Cyprus at 151, Greece at 123, Turkey at 115 and France at 108...