09/12/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
“Wisdom resides in the people – this is a truth lying at the heart of the democratic culture which has kept Europe secure for the last sixty years. But democracy can be practised in many ways. National referenda have a valuable role to play, yet we have seen how they can also be misused for political ends. I believe there are fundamental values that should never be put to a popular vote,” pointed out Lluís Maria de Puig, on the eve of Human Rights Day.
25/11/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Christos Pourgourides (Cyprus, EPP/CD), PACE rapporteur on the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, has ended a two-day visit to Rome (23-24 November 2009) by calling for a solution to the structural problem of excessive length of judicial proceedings in Italy. Mr Pourgourides called upon members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, representing both the ruling party and the opposition, to act together to adopt all the necessary measures to speed up criminal and civil proceedings.
20/11/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Christos Pourgourides (Cyprus, EPP/CD), rapporteur of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of PACE, will make a fact-finding visit to Rome on 23 and 24 November as part of the preparation of his report on the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. This is the third, after Bulgaria and Ukraine, in a series of visits intended to bring parliamentary pressure to bear on states where the execution of the Court’s judgments meets with delays or difficulties.
19/11/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (Germany ALDE), the former Rapporteur on "politically-motivated abuses of the criminal justice system in Council of Europe member states", today expressed her dismay at the death in a remand prison in Moscow of the lawyer Sergey Magnitsky, who had defended Hermitage Investment/HSBC against fraudulent manoeuvres allegedly involving high Russian officials, as described in the report adopted by the Assembly in October 2009.
16/11/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
While recalling that the eradication of homophobia and transphobia requires the member states political resolve, the PACE Legal Affairs Committee meeting this morning in Paris adopted a draft resolution urging European governments to guarantee “legal recognition of same-sex partnerships” and the possibility of joint parental responsibility for each partner’s children, or even “the right of each partner to adopt the other partner’s children”.
26/10/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE), PACE rapporteur on the human rights situation in the North Caucasus, today expressed his shock at the murder, on Sunday 25 October, of Maksharip Aushev, Ingush opposition figure, in the region of Kabardino-Balkaria, a neighbouring republic of Ingushetia.
22/09/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
European governments should be guided by the words of a great American judge of last century, Mr Justice Brandeis, who wrote in 1928: “If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for the law,” according to Christos Pourgourides (Cyprus, EPP/CD), speaking during a round table in Florence on 18-19 September on the challenges for the judiciary of the fight against terrorism.
11/09/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
A PACE rapporteur has expressed his “serious concern” that 36 of the 47 Council of Europe member states are now failing to fully implement within a reasonable time judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, which are supposed to be binding. Implementing judgments normally means that the state concerned pays the victim the compensation directed by the Court, and changes its laws or practices to avoid a repetition of the violation. Christos Pourgourides (Cyprus, EPP/CD), who regularly monitors this issue for the PACE, was presenting an updated list of outstanding judgments to the Assembly’s Legal Affairs Committee in Paris.
21/08/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
“With yesterday’s report that Lithuania hosted a secret CIA prison, as well as other recent revelations regarding the ‘black sites’ in Poland and Romania, the time has now come for Europe to account in full for its involvement in this shameful episode," said Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE), PACE's rapporteur on secret detentions. "My own sources seem to confirm yesterday’s news report that US ‘high-value detainees’ were held in Lithuania. The authorities should now carry out a full, independent and credible investigation [into] what occurred on the outskirts of Vilnius."
06/08/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
"It is totally unacceptable to ignore binding interim measures ordered by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). It is disgraceful, for a mature democracy like Italy, to have send Ali Toumi back to Tunisia last Sunday, a case in which there exists an imminent risk of irreparable damage to the applicant”, today said Herta Däubler-Gmelin (Germany, SOC) and Christos Pourgourides (Cyprus, EPP/CD), respectively the Chair of the PACE Legal Affairs Committee and the rapporteur on the implementation of Strasbourg Court judgments.
03/08/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
In connection with his forthcoming report on inhuman treatment of people and illicit trafficking in human organs in Kosovo, Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE), rapporteur of the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, today began a fact-finding visit to Serbia (3 to 5 August), immediately followed by a visit to Albania (5 to 6 August). Mr Marty will meet various official representatives in the two countries, including the Justice and Interior ministers and state prosecutors, the national parliamentary delegations and NGOs, particularly ones representing the families of missing persons.
28/07/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Christoph Strässer (Germany, SOC), PACE rapporteur on the follow-up to the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, is disturbed by the arrest in controversial circumstances of Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade, two activist members of civil society who studied in Germany. "These arrests will draw the international community's attention to the cases of journalists and NGO activists convicted on the basis of dubious allegations of vandalism and slander", said Mr Strässer. "I shall, when preparing my report, pay great attention to the arrest and conviction of opposition activists and representatives of civil society."