13/12/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Information gathered to date has “reinforced the credibility of allegations concerning the transfer and temporary detention of individuals, without any judicial involvement, in European countries”, according to Dick Marty, the Swiss parliamentarian looking into allegations of secret detention centres. In a statement today to PACE’s Legal Affairs Committee, Mr Marty said legal proceedings in certain countries “seemed to indicate that individuals had been abducted and transferred to other countries without respect for legal standards”, although he said it was too early to assert there had been complicity of member states in illegal actions. He noted that the allegations had never formally been denied by the US.
12/12/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) is due to discuss the progress of the inquiry by Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE) into "Alleged secret detention centres in Council of Europe member states" at a meeting in Paris on Tuesday 13 December 2005. The meeting begins at 9am on Tuesday 13 December at the Council of Europe office (55 avenue Kléber, Paris 16e, Métro: Boissière). Mr Marty will be available for interviews from 2 p.m.
22/11/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Rapporteur of the PACE's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE), who is responsible for investigating the alleged existence of secret detention centres in Council of Europe member states, today told the committee at a meeting in Paris that at this stage he had no proof of the existence of such centres, but did have indications that the implementation of anti-terrorism measures was incompatible with the Council of Europe’s human rights standards.
21/11/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) will discuss an information memorandum on this subject by Rapporteur Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE) at its meeting in Paris on Tuesday, 22 November. This part of the meeting is not open to the press.
21/11/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Representatives of member states which have not ratified the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the protection of National Minorities (Andorra, Belgium, France, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg, Monaco and Turkey) have been invited to a hearing, organised by the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), in Paris on Tuesday 22 November. The purpose of the hearing is to examine, together with government representatives, experts, NGOs and the Chairperson of the Council of Europe expert committee which drafted the text, how to overcome possible obstacles to the signature or ratification of the Convention.
10/11/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Chair of PACE's Sub-committee on Human Rights, Christos Pourgourides, has appealed to Senegal to extradite former Chadian president Hissène Habré to Belgium to face charges of human rights violations allegedly carried out during his rule in the 1980s. In a letter, Mr Pourgourides pointed out that the Council of Europe has long fought against impunity and supported “universal jurisdiction” – which allows trials in third countries – in cases of serious violations. Mr Habré is wanted by Belgian police for instigating thousands of politically-motivated murders and systematic torture during his eight-year rule as well as organising ethnic violence.
07/11/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE) was today elected Chair of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. He takes over from Serhiy Holovaty (Ukraine, ALDE), recently appointed as Ukraine’s Minister of Justice. Dick Marty is a member of the Parliamentary Assembly since 1998.
07/11/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE's Legal Affairs Committee appointed today its Chairperson Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE) as rapporteur to examine the subject of alleged secret CIA detention centres with a view to a possible urgent debate at the next Standing Committee's meeting (Bucharest, 25 November 2005). The Committee recalled that in PACE Resolution 1433 (2005) the Assembly calls upon member States "to ensure that their territory and facilities are not used in connection with practices of secret detention." The Committee also agreed to authorise Mr Marty to visit certain member States, if need be. It finally urged the Secretary General of the Council of Europe to request all member States to provide him with any information at their disposal by virtue of Article 52 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
04/11/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Following the allegations published in the international press about the existence of secret CIA detention centres in Europe, Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly President René van der Linden today asked the Assembly’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, which is to meet in Paris on Monday 7 November, to closely look into this matter. The President reminded that all Council of Europe member States are under a legal obligation to respect the relevant provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture. In this context, he drew attention to the recently PACE adopted resolutions 1433 and 1463 and recommendations 1699 and 1719 on “Lawfulness of detentions by the United States in Guantánamo Bay” and on “Enforced disappearances”.
12/10/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s Sub-Committee on Human Rights, meeting in Geneva today, invited its Chairman, Christos Pourgourides (Cyprus, EPP/CD) to express its full support for the peaceful “Day of Solidarity” with the families and friends of four missing opposition activists and journalists: Yuri Zakharenko, Victor Gonchar, Anatoly Krasovski and Dmitri Zavadski. Grassroots initiatives such as “We Remember”, “We Want to Know the Truth”, “Free Belarus”, and “Zubr” are calling on citizens in Belarus to show their solidarity by switching off their lights on Sunday 16 October at 8 pm and to place a candle in their window.
16/09/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, meeting in Paris this morning, adopted the following declaration : “The Committee condemns the systematic and worsening campaign of intimidation and persecution of independent journalists and civil society activists in the Republic of Belarus. The Committee denounces the recent crackdown on the Union of Belarusian Poles and Polish-language media outlets.
14/09/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The three candidates for the post of Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights – Thomas Hammarberg (Sweden), Marek Antoni Nowicki (Poland) and Marc Verwilghen (Belgium) – were interviewed by a panel of European parliamentarians on 15 September 2005 in Paris. The panel – the Human Rights Sub-committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s Legal Affairs Committee – will then make confidential recommendations to members of the Assembly, which is due to elect a new Commissioner on 4 and 5 October 2005 during its plenary session.