05/01/2007 | News
“We express our solidarity with the Iraqi people and reiterate our unequivocal condemnation of the crimes committed by the regime of Saddam Hussein, but we also call for an immediate end of executions and the abolition of the death penalty in Iraq. The message to our friends in Iraq is based on our own experience in Europe; namely that the death penalty violates human rights, and that without human rights there can be no justice, peace and reconciliation “
22/12/2006 | News
In a report made public today, Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) rapporteur on child victims, Jean-Charles Gardetto (Monaco, EPP/CD), explains that maltreatment, physical violence or neglect is the cause of death of three children per week in France and two per week in Germany and the United Kingdom. * “Every day, children are bought, sold, imported, exported, used as commodities, subjected to forced marriages, prostitution. They become soldiers, servants, have their organs removed for the purpose of trafficking. They are victims of sexual abuse, everyday maltreatment, corporal punishment, trivialised domestic and parental violence as well as intimidation at school. Although there is an extensive legal apparatus at the international level intended to secure children’s rights and combat certain forms of exploitations, there is a glaring discrepancy between the rights secured to children on paper and the reality,” Mr Gardetto says in his report.
04/12/2006 | News
PACE today expressed its concern that between 30 000 and 60 000 women might be the object of trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation at the forthcoming Football World Cup in Germany and asked FIFA to firmly condemn trafficking in women. “In its capacity as World Cup organiser, FIFA must also assume its responsibility to condemn the exploitation of women, which sometimes, highly regrettably, accompanies the holding of sports events, and therefore to denounce any activities that threaten human rights.”
27/11/2006 | News
“Whether we are national, regional or local elected representatives or simple citizens, domestic violence against women is a problem that concerns us all. It is our individual and collective responsibility to break the silence and take action”, PACE President René van der Linden said in Madrid today at the launching of the Council of Europe Campaign to combat domestic violence.
26/11/2006 | News
''Domestic violence must be criminalised, victims protected and perpetrators punished across Europe''. The call comes as Europe marks the UN’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. It is also the prelude to a major conference on the subject in Madrid, Spain, where the 46 member Council will launch a campaign aimed at stopping a major human rights abuse.
17/11/2006 | News
Ahead of a major Council of Europe campaign to combat domestic violence against women, to be launched in Madrid on 27 November, the PACE Standing Committee, meeting in San Marino, today adopted the following declaration: “Domestic violence against women is a serious assault on women’s dignity which no Council of Europe member state should tolerate. The PACE, committed to defending human rights, publicly and unequivocally condemns domestic violence. Such violence is the result of an unequal relationship between women and men which it also perpetuates..."
17/11/2006 | News
PACE President René van der Linden today urged Council of Europe member states to provide the Organisation with “the financial and political support it needs” to fulfil its potential. Speaking at the opening of the Assembly’s Standing Committee in San Marino, which has just taken over the six-month Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers, the President said: “I strongly urge the San Marinese chairmanship to foster a constructive atmosphere for budgetary negotiations, especially amongst those member states whose narrow, penny-pinching attitude is frankly embarrassing.”
17/11/2006 | News
Europe’s parliaments should promote initiatives aimed at prohibiting the import and marketing of seal-derived products, following bans introduced in the US and Mexico, PACE’s Standing Committee said today. Approving a report by Pasquale Nessa (Italy, EPP/CD) at a meeting in San Marino, the parliamentarians also called on seal-hunting states to maintain seal numbers, ban cruel hunting methods and encourage “seal-watching” as a viable alternative to hunting.
13/11/2006 | News
Topics of the hearing, organised on 14 November in London by PACE’s Migration Committee, include migration and integration challenges in the United Kingdom, promoting citizenship among newcomers and promoting the integration of settled communities. The day before, in Manchester, committee members will have discussed “the lessons of Oldham” (a reference to ethnically-motivated riots in the town in May 2001), the provision of services to migrant communities, the role of community leaders and the experience of a newly-arrived migrant community, the Somalis.
13/11/2006 | News
PACE Standing Committee will meet in San Marino on Friday 17 November 2006, two days after San Marino takes over the six-month Chairmanship of the Council of Europe’s executive body, the Committee of Ministers. Following the opening of the meeting by PACE President René van der Linden, the committee will hold an exchange of views with San Marino’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Political Affairs Fiorenzo Stolfi on the priorities of his six-month chairmanship.
10/11/2006 | News
PACE President René van der Linden today held meetings in the Slovak National Council in Bratislava with the Speaker Pavol Paska, the chair of the parliamentary delegation to PACE Boris Zala and representatives of the political groups and committees. He called on Slovak parliamentarians to show no tolerance for any manifestations of intolerance and xenophobia. "Respect for difference and diversity lies at the heart of the values defended by the Council of Europe; ensuring such respect in practice is an unconditional duty for all member states," he said.
07/11/2006 | News
PACE President René van der Linden today praised Montenegro for the “political maturity” it has shown during and after the Referendum which led to independence, and called on the authorities to build “constructive, reciprocally beneficial and friendly relations” with all its neighbours, in particular Serbia. Addressing the Montenegrin Parliament – the first foreign guest to do so – the President urged the fifty-five per cent of Montenegrins who had voted for independence to “reach out” to those that voted otherwise to “work together towards consolidating Montenegro as a functional and genuinely democratic state”.