19/03/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein/EPP), the Parliamentary Assembly’s Rapporteur on “The death penalty in Council of Europe member and observer countries – an unacceptable violation of human rights” congratulated New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson for signing into law the abolition of the death penalty in this State. “The reason given by Governor Richardson – that DNA evidence has shown that innocent people have been condemned to death in the past – is but one of many good reasons, pragmatic and principled, to rid the world of this barbaric form of punishment.”
17/03/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Council of Europe parliamentarians and leading human rights figures from around the world – including from international courts, NGOs, law firms and universities – will gather at the German Bundestag in Berlin on Monday 23 March for a major conference on “The state of human rights in Europe: the need to eradicate impunity”. Organised by PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, in co-operation with the Bundestag’s Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid, the conference will focus on topics such as states’ failure to bring to justice the perpetrators of torture, disappearances and killings, impunity for organised crime and the spread of government corruption.
21/01/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Fifty years ago today, the first judges of the European Court of Human Rights were elected by PACE. Under the terms of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Assembly – made up of parliamentarians from all 47 Council of Europe member states – elects each judge from a short-list of three candidates nominated by each High Contracting Party. “For the last half century, Europe’s parliamentarians have been proud to contribute to the Court’s astonishing success, by providing it with democratic legitimacy, watching over its development and championing its work,” said Marie-Louise Bemelmans-Videc (Netherlands, EPP/CD), who currently chairs the Assembly’s Sub-committee on the Election of Judges to the European Court.
20/01/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE), PACE rapporteur on the human rights situation in the north Caucasus, has expressed his profound indignation following the murder of prominent human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov.“I was deeply shocked to learn of the murder of Stanislav Markelov, who made untiring efforts to combat the impunity of those responsible for human rights violations in Chechnya and elsewhere in the north Caucasus," he said.
14/11/2008 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Urging Council of Europe member states to adopt laws which protect “whistle-blowers”, PACE's rapporteur on the subject has said that encouraging insiders to report wrong-doing or go public with their concerns can “make democracies stronger”. Speaking at a hearing in Moscow organised by the Assembly’s Legal Affairs Committee, Pieter Omtzigt (Netherlands, EPP/CD) said: “It is the essence of democracy and the rule of law that warnings by those who are uneasy about something are reported, investigated and resolved. This makes democracies stronger, because they can avoid mistakes.”
06/11/2008 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
On 5 November Dick Marty, PACE Rapporteur on the “illegal transfer of detainees and secret detentions in Europe”, testified as a witness at the Milan court hearing the trial of CIA agents and Italian secret service agents involved in the kidnapping of Abu Omar. He was questioned closely on the result of his inquiry. In particular, he showed how the Abu Omar affair was part of a global CIA strategy involving several European states, a strategy “beyond any legal framework and in grave violation of the European Convention on Human Rights”.
09/09/2008 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights is deeply shocked by the violent death of Magomed Yevloyev, prominent journalist and owner of the website ingushetya.ru, which occurred on 31 August in a vehicle of the Ingush authorities (Russian Federation). It offers its sincere condolences to the family of the deceased and urges the competent authorities to shed all possible light on the circumstances of this tragedy.
09/06/2008 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Strasbourg, 09.06.2008 -“Member states parliaments should be more rigorous in ensuring regular verification of the compatibility of their legislation with European human rights convention standards ” declared Marie-Louise Bemelmans-Videc (Netherlands, EPP/CD) in a keynote speech today at a...
06/06/2008 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Non-execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights remains a “major problem” for eleven countries that are in theory bound by its rulings, according to an introductory memorandum by Christos Pourgourides (Cyprus, EPP/CD) made public by PACE’s Legal Affairs Committee. Problems are “most pressing” in at least four states, according to the rapporteur: Italy, the Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine. The report aims to bring parliamentary pressure to bear on states that have not fully implemented judgments after five years or more, or ones which raise “important implementation issues”.
05/06/2008 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Marie-Louise Bemelmans-Videc (Netherlands, EPP/CD) will represent the PACE Committee of Legal Affairs and Human Rights at the colloquy “Towards stronger implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights” at national level, organised under the Swedish Chairmanship of the Committee of...
03/06/2008 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights has urged Turkey to take “a positive attitude” to the small number of ethnic Greeks still living on the Turkish Aegean islands of Gökçeada (Imbros) and Bozcaada (Tenedos) and their descendants. In a draft resolution approved yesterday, the committee welcomed a number of positive gestures already taken, but called for the fair settlement of education and land issues concerning ethnic Greeks, and steps to repair the damage done to the natural and cultural heritage of the islands.
25/04/2008 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
For the purposes of preparing his report on the Gökçeada/Imbros and Bozcaada/Tenedos islands, Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC), Rapporteur of PACE, will make a fact-finding visit from 27 April to 2 May to the two Turkish islands, where he will meet inhabitants and local authorities. He will then stop over in Ankara for talks with representatives of the Ministries of the Interior, Education, Justice and Foreign Affairs.