14/04/2025 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Steve Cohen, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Special Representative on Political Prisoners, and Azadeh Rojhan, Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) General Rapporteur on Political Prisoners in Europe, today made the following statement: “We strongly condemn the continued detention of three...
04/03/2025 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Recalling the “unequivocal obligation” to implement judgments of the Strasbourg Court in a “timely and effective manner”, the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights today expressed concern at the failure of some States Parties to the European Convention on Human Rights to remedy the...
03/03/2025 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Gala Veldhoen (Netherlands, SOC), General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty, has expressed her dismay at the announcement of a firing squad execution in the United States. “Brad Sigmon, on death row since his conviction...
03/03/2025 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
A PACE hearing on ‘Proceeds of the crime denounced by Sergei Magnitsky found in Switzerland must not be returned to the presumed perpetrators’ was organised by the Committee of Legal Affairs and Human Rights in Paris today, in the context of the report being prepared by Lesia Vasylenko (Ukraine...
03/03/2025 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
In the framework of the preparation of a follow-up report on the PACE resolution on Pegasus and similar spyware and secret state surveillance, the Committee of Legal Affairs and Human Rights organised a hearing on the subject in Paris today. Participants in the hearing included Iain Cameron...
16/01/2025 | Monitoring
PACE's co-rapporteur for the monitoring of Azerbaijan, Lise Christoffersen (Norway, SOC), and the General Rapporteur for political prisoners, Thórhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC), have expressed deep concern at the recent sentencing of Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, a well-known Azerbaijani civil...
13/12/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
A PACE committee is calling for robust international and national laws and regulations to ensure that the activities of private military and security companies – described as mercenaries in some contexts – “align with democratic principles and respect for human rights”, including on issues such...
04/12/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The PACE General Rapporteur for political prisoners, Thórhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC), and General Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders and whistleblowers, Emanuelis Zingeris (Lithuania, EPP/CD), have reacted to the arrest of Rufat Safarov by the Azerbaijani...
29/11/2024 | Standing Committee
PACE’s Standing Committee has proposed a number of ways to increase the Assembly’s exchanges with civil society, whose role in a democracy should be “celebrated and protected”, while also introducing a code of conduct to ensure that any exchanges with what it terms “interest representatives” – or...
21/11/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
“AI must serve humanity in a fair and ethical manner, in conformity with Council of Europe values and the principles of transparency, accountability, safety and security, The Assembly will continue to engage with all stakeholders to that end, including Council of Europe bodies and other...
30/10/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
On the occasion of the International Day of Political Prisoners, PACE General Rapporteur for political prisoners, Thórhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC), made the following statement: “Imprisoning people for expressing themselves is a lethal weapon against democracy. Criminalising dissent is...
22/10/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
A PACE committee has proposed a number of ways to increase the Assembly’s exchanges with civil society, whose role in a democracy should be “celebrated and protected”, while also introducing a code of conduct to ensure that any exchanges with what it terms “interest representatives” – or...