05/09/2005 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Strasbourg, 05.09.2005 – Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold (Switzerland, SOC), rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), visiting Ukraine from 29 August to 1 September, expressed her extreme concern about the disappearance of new-born babies in the country and allegations of trafficking of babies for adoption and of foetuses for scientific purposes. She called on the office of the principal state prosecutor to shed light on those cases already brought to his attention, to open investigations into any other suspicious incidents and to bring those responsible to justice. Ms Vermot-Mangold said that during her visit she had obtained detailed information on four cases and added that “whatever the number of disappearances, just one case is one too many”.
22/08/2005 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Strasbourg, 24.08.2005 - A rapporteur of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold (Switzerland, SOC), will visit Ukraine from 29 August to 1 September to investigate the alleged disappearance of newborn babies in mysterious circumstances. German media had reported that two babies born in a clinic in Kharkov at the end of 2002 had been taken away from their mothers a few hours after being born.
21/07/2005 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
A PACE rapporteur is to visit Ukraine to investigate claims that newborn babies are disappearing in mysterious circumstances. German media reported that two babies born in a clinic in Kharkov at the end of 2002 were taken away from their mothers a few hours after being born. Medical staff later declared that they had died of complications, but their parents were never given access to their bodies despite repeated requests. Several foetuses and bodies of newborn babies whose organs had been removed were subsequently discovered at the clinic's biological waste site, according to the reports. One Ukrainian NGO believes up to 300 similar disappearances may have occurred between 2001 and 2003. Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold (Switzerland, SOC), who is in Ukraine from 31 August to 1 September, will visit the clinic and speak with staff as well as the NGO concerned and Ukraine's health minister and ombudsman.
11/03/2005 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE’s rapporteur on European deltas Leo Platvoet (Netherlands, UEL) has just returned from a fact-finding visit to the Ebro Delta in Spain (3-4 March 2005), where he saw at first hand how the construction of upstream barrages has reduced natural sedimentation, contributing to major erosion of the delta, which is a protected area and home to many rare bird species. “Some 50,000 people live in the delta region, however, and this must also be taken into account in any plan to preserve this ecosystem,” pointed out Mr Platvoet, who met local mayors, farmers and hunters as well as environmental campaigners. He has also visited the Po and Danube Deltas for his report, which is due before the summer.
16/12/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The Committee on Social Affairs, mmeting today in Paris, adopted draft resolution on "Assistance to patients at end of life". The text, prepared by Dick Marty (Switzerland, LDR), propose that Council of Europe member States define and implement "a genuine policy of assistance to patients at end of life which does not cause them to want to die". It therefore propose measures such as the promotion of palliative treatment, bearing in mind that the aim is to alleviate the patient’s suffering, while also realising that it may shorten his or her life in certain cases, and the development of codes of medical ethics to avoid superfluous treatments which can be regarded as over-zealous prolongation of life. The text underlines the right of any patient "capable of discernment, being fully aware of the facts, to decline the treatment proposed".
29/10/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
An expert from Russian oil company Lukoil and a representative of the Council of Baltic Sea States discuss the environmental impact of this planned oil extraction operation in the Baltic, close to a UNESCO world heritage site at a meeting of the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs in Paris on 4 November. An outline report by Daniel Goulet (France, LDR) explains the background.
21/09/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Local authorities from the countries around the Adriatic basin could work together for the sustainable development of their common sea using Council of Europe expertise and EU finance, according to the head of the Italian delegation to PACE Claudio Azzolini. He was speaking at a colloquy held at Chioggia in the Venice Lagoon, attended by representatives from Albania, Croatia, Italy, Serbia and Montenegro and Slovenia.
21/09/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE’s Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee, together with the Sub-Committee on Population of its Migration Committee, are jointly organising in Bratislava on 23-24 September a parliamentary seminar to prepare the European Population Conference 2005. This conference, co-hosted by the Assembly in Strasbourg from 7-8 April 2005, will provide a forum for dialogue between demographers and policy-makers Europe-wide on the theme “Demographic challenges for social cohesion”. This preparatory seminar, which focuses on the problems of central and eastern Europe, will discuss in turn changing family formations, ageing, the impact of migration and vulnerable population groups.
20/09/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE’s Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee will hold in Bratislava on 22 September an exchange of views on a memorandum on Assistance to ill persons at the end of life by Dick Marty (Switzerland, LDR). Following a plenary debate in April 2004 on Mr Marty’s earlier report on Euthanasia, the Assembly voted to refer it back to the committee, recommending “a new text which brings together the widely diverging approaches expressed during the debate”. The committee will also discuss two petitions, one on Dutch-speakers’ and the other on French-speakers’ right to medical care in Brussels and surrounding regions. The committee will also be informed by Michael Hancock (United Kingdom, LDR) of his recent visit to Bulgaria to follow up his report on Improving the lot of abandoned children in institutions.
16/09/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Final agreement within the World Trade Organisation on the so-called “Doha development agenda” is urgently needed if the quickening process of globalisation is to benefit all the world’s population, PACE’s Economic Affairs Committee said in a draft report approved yesterday. The report, by Kimmo Sasi (Finland, EPP/CD), welcomed the interim agreement reached by WTO members in Geneva in July 2004. WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi will take part in the plenary debate on the report, provisionally scheduled for Monday 4 October 2004.
09/09/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Europe should not “play with fire”, parliamentarians were told at a hearing on the question of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) organised by the Assembly’s Environment Committee in Paris yesterday. Several Assembly members considered that the potential risks were much harder to pin down than the benefits. The committee had invited a number of experts to the hearing to share their views on the risks and benefits of “crop engineering” for a report being prepared by Wolfgang Wodarg (Germany, SOC).
05/07/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Michael Hancock (United Kingdom, LDR), who is assessing the follow-up to the Assembly’s April 2003 recommendation on “Improving the lot of abandoned children in institutions” for the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee, will visit Bulgaria from 24 to 27 August. Accompanied by Bulgarian Assembly member Darinka Stantcheva, he is due to visit a number of orphanages and day-care centres in Sofia as well as meeting government ministers and other authorities responsible for childrens’ matters and childrens’ NGOs.