16/04/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Assembly’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights is due to finalise on 21 April its opinion on draft protocol No. 14 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which amends the control system of the convention to enable the Court to cope with a massively increased workload. The draft protocol proposes the creation of more judges, allowing single judges to declare inadmissible or strike out cases, and extending the term of office of judges to a single, non-renewable nine-year term as well as allowing the Court to declare inadmissible any application where “the applicant has not suffered a significant disadvantage”. Also on the agenda are the committee’s latest moves to promote abolition of the death penalty in the United States, a Council of Europe observer state.
02/04/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Assembly’s Sub-Committee on the election of judges to the European Court of Human Rights held interviews with candidates for judge in respect of Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Portugal and Sweden. Based on the interviews and assessments of CVs, the sub-committee will make recommendations to assist the Assembly in its task of electing each judge to the Court from a list of three candidates submitted by the Contracting State concerned. New elections, due to take place during the Assembly’s April session, are necessary since the six-year term of office of half the judges in the Court comes to an end in November 2004
12/03/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Assembly Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights held a hearing on the human rights situation in Kosovo in Paris on 16 March. The discussion focused on three themes: political authority and current institutional structures, human rights protection mechanisms and implementation of Council of Europe standards. The hearing will contribute to a report by Tony Lloyd (United Kingdom, SOC), who should propose ways of making application of the European Convention on Human Rights more effective in Kosovo.
10/03/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights is to hold a hearing on the human rights situation in Kosovo in Paris (Council of Europe Office, 55 avenue Kléber) on Tuesday 16 March 2004. The hearing will be opened at 9am by the first Vice-Chairperson of the committee, Dick Marty (Switzerland, LDR). Participants will include Bajram Rexhepi, Prime Minister of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG) of Kosovo; Marek Antoni Nowicki, Ombudsperson; Petr Ivantsov, Political Director of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK); Carsten Weber, Director of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the OSCE Mission (OMIK), and Alvaro Gil-Robles, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.
10/03/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
At a joint press conference in Strasbourg on 10 March, Michel Hunault (France, EPP/CD), rapporteur for the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly on the situation of European prisons and pre-trial detention centres, and Maurizio Turco, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the rights of prisoners in the European Union, called for the drawing up of a European Prisons' Charter. This joint initiative by the two institutions will equip Europe with a permanent monitoring system in the judicial and penal field, ensuring supervision of all the players in the judicial and penal system.
09/03/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
On Wednesday 10 March, 11 a.m., Assembly rapporteur Michel Hunault (France, EPP/CD) presented his report on the situation of European prisons and pre-trial centres together with Maurizio Turco, European Parliament rapporteur on the rights of prisoners in the European Union at a joint press conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg (Louise Weiss Build., room N -1/201). In his report, Mr Hunault stresses that living conditions in many prisons and pre-trial detention centres are incompatible with respect for human dignity.
05/03/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Sub-Committee on the election of judges to the European Court of Human Rights held on 8 March in Paris interviews with candidates for judge in respect of Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway. Based on the interviews and assessments of CVs, the sub-committee will make confidential recommendations to assist the Assembly, which elects each judge to the Court from a list of three candidates submitted by the Contracting State concerned. The new elections, due to take place during the Assembly’s April session, are necessary since the six-year term of office of half the judges in the Court comes to an end in November 2004.
22/01/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
19-21 January, Pristina - The rapporteur on the human rights situation in Kosovo, Tony Lloyd (United Kingdom, SOC), visited the region, where he met the Prime Minister, Bajram Rexhepi, as well as representatives of the United Nations, the OSCE and NATO. Preparation of his report on the question will continue with the holding of a hearing in Paris on 16 March.