06/10/2011 | Session
Unjustified resort to the doctrine of “state secrets” is too often shielding secret services and intelligence agencies from scrutiny of involvement in human rights violations such as torture, abduction or renditions, PACE has said. In a resolution adopted today, based on a report by Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE), the Assembly said information on responsibility for such violations should not be considered as state secrets worthy of protection.
06/10/2011 | Session
“Europe needs a truly pan-European co-ordination mechanism, supported at the highest political level by all Council of Europe member states,” said PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Strasbourg today, opening a current affairs debate on how Council of Europe member states can come to the aid of countries touched by humanitarian catastrophes such as those in East Africa.
06/10/2011 | Session
There is no need for a "trade-off" between protecting human rights and effective counter-terrorist action, according to PACE, as safeguards exist in human rights law itself. Adopting a resolution based on a report by Lord John E. Tomlinson (United Kingdom, SOC), the Assembly reminded States Parties to the ECHR that they are duty-bound to secure within their jurisdiction, including for individuals or regions under their effective control but outside their ordinary territory, the rights and freedoms guaranteed therein.
06/10/2011 | Session
Despite an overall positive assessment of the situation in the Balkans, the recent upsurge of tension and political impasse in some parts of the region give rise to concern, PACE said today. Following an urgent debate, based on a report by Björn von Sydow (Sweden, SOC), the Assembly listed a series of steps to reduce the growing tension in North Kosovo, end the political stalemate in Bosnia and Herzegovina and improve the situation in Albania.
05/10/2011 | Session
"High unemployment is the big elephant in the room: this job crisis is the human face of the crisis", highlighted OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria while addressing PACE on Wednesday. The former Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs underlined many interconnections between areas of expertise of both OECD and Council of Europe, such as youth unemployment, gender, and tax havens.
05/10/2011 | Session
In a context of modest growth, weak public finances and persistently high unemployment in many member states, the Assembly considers that combating unemployment is one of the central challenges confronting the OECD economies; it has called on the OECD to develop appropriate policy advice in order to prevent high long-term unemployment rates from becoming entrenched.
05/10/2011 | Session
“Child pornography is a crime and a grave violation of the rights of the child,” the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography emphasised in her address to the Parliamentary Assembly.
05/10/2011 | Session
Deeply concerned at the public’s increased access to violent and extreme pornographic material, the Assembly has called on European governments to ensure the effective implementation of existing law regulating the production, distribution and sale of pornography. “A common feature in Council of Europe member states is the poor enforcement of existing law and regulations,” it underlined.
05/10/2011 | Session
According to the PACE, the partnership between the Council of Europe and the EU facilitated by the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty should lead to “a common space for human rights protection across the continent in the interest of all people in Europe”, through the European Union’s accession to the European Convention on Human Rights, which is a requirement of the treaty.
05/10/2011 | Session
The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of PACE has today expressed its dismay that Ales Bialiatski, a highly-respected human rights defender and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, has been arrested by the Belarusian authorities.
05/10/2011 | Session
“Crimes committed by travelling sex offenders are among the worst forms of violence against children, because they reduce them to mere objects of abusive desires and commercial interests,” said Liliane Maury Pasquier (Switzerland,, SOC), Chair of the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee, speaking today at the 4th meeting of the network of contact parliamentarians to stop sexual violence against children.
05/10/2011 | Session
“The outcome of the latest general amnesty in Armenia, the renewed impetus to investigate the 10 deaths during the March 2008 events, and the resulting start of a constructive dialogue between the opposition and ruling coalition mean that the chapter on the March 2008 events can finally be considered closed for the Assembly, whilst its monitoring of Armenia’s human rights and democracy obligations, including with respect of the investigation into the ten causalities, will continue unabated”, PACE said today.