21/11/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
“AI must serve humanity in a fair and ethical manner, in conformity with Council of Europe values and the principles of transparency, accountability, safety and security, The Assembly will continue to engage with all stakeholders to that end, including Council of Europe bodies and other...
30/10/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
On the occasion of the International Day of Political Prisoners, PACE General Rapporteur for political prisoners, Thórhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC), made the following statement: “Imprisoning people for expressing themselves is a lethal weapon against democracy. Criminalising dissent is...
22/10/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
A PACE committee has proposed a number of ways to increase the Assembly’s exchanges with civil society, whose role in a democracy should be “celebrated and protected”, while also introducing a code of conduct to ensure that any exchanges with what it terms “interest representatives” – or...
09/10/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
On the eve of the 22nd World Day against the Death Penalty (10 October), PACE General Rapporteur on the abolition of the death penalty, Gala Veldhoen (Netherlands, SOC), made the following statement: “This year’s theme, ‘The death penalty protects no one,’ is a timely reminder of the persistent...
01/10/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Julian Assange, accompanied by his wife Stella, took part in a parliamentary hearing on his detention and conviction - and their chilling effect on human rights - ahead of a full plenary debate on this topic by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) due on Wednesday 2 October...
12/09/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE’s Legal Affairs Committee has warmly welcomed the release of Julian Assange but expressed deep concern at “the disproportionately harsh treatment” he faced, and called on the US to investigate the alleged war crimes and human rights violations disclosed by him and Wikileaks. Approving a...
19/07/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE General Rapporteur for political prisoners, Thórhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC), has reacted to today’s judgment of a court in Yekaterinburg, sentencing a journalist of the Wall Street Journal, Evan Gershkovich, to 16 years’ imprisonment on fabricated espionage charges. “I was...
17/07/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE rapporteur on ensuring accountability for the downing of flight MH17, Titus Corlăţean (Romania, SOC), issued the following statement marking the 10th anniversary of the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 by the Russian-controlled separatist forces in eastern Ukraine: “On 17 July 2014...
09/07/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC), PACE’s General Rapporteur for Political Prisoners and Rapporteur for follow-up on The arbitrary detention of Vladimir Kara-Murza and the systematic persecution of anti-war protesters in the Russian Federation, has expressed deep concern at the situation of...
23/05/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
A special tribunal, created by agreement between the Council of Europe and Ukraine and supported by an enlarged partial agreement open to non-member States and other international organisations, is now “the best feasible option, in terms of legal basis and political legitimacy” for trying Russia...
17/05/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) held a public hearing marking the 90th anniversary of Ukraine's Holodomor, or Great Famine, which was livestreamed in English on Tuesday 21 May 2024. The Holodomor was a mass famine in grain-growing areas of the country which began in the...
14/05/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on “The detention of Julian Assange and its chilling effects on human rights”, Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC), has concluded a two-day fact-finding visit to the United Kingdom, during which she met Julian Assange in...