14/04/2011 | Session
The Assembly today urged the US and Japan, as observer states to the Council of Europe, and Belarus, which aspires to membership, to join the growing consensus among democratic countries that protect human rights and human dignity by abolishing the death penalty. In a resolution based on a report by Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD), PACE said: “The European experience has shown conclusively that the death penalty is not needed to check violent crime, and that political leaders who led the way towards abolition did not suffer any backlash from public opinion.”
14/04/2011 | Session
In a recommendation adopted today, the Assembly invited the Committee of Ministers to amend the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment so that members of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) would be elected by PACE. Parliamentarians believe that if members of the CPT were elected by the Assembly they would have enhanced democratic legitimacy and authority.
13/04/2011 | Session
Addressing the Parliamentary Assembly, the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Ahmet Davutoğlu stressed that the recent important events in the southern shores of the Mediterranean served as a strong reminder of the relevance of the Council of Europe’s values. Recalling that the core mandate of the Organisation is and remains in Europe, Minister Davutoğlu underlined that in today’s increasingly globalised world, the Council of Europe “cannot simply be indifferent to the regions around it”.
13/04/2011 | Session
Adopting a resolution on the honouring of obligations and commitments by Georgia, PACE today welcomed “the significant efforts” made by the authorities in honouring their remaining obligations and the “considerable progress” achieved since the last monitoring report adopted in 2008, but decided to continue its monitoring procedure “pending further progress” on key issues.
13/04/2011 | Session
"Progress in implementing human rights is too slow, and the agreed standards are not consistently enforced," said Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg, presenting his 2010 annual activity report to the Assembly today. "The implementation gap is wide." He added: "What I have seen and heard during my activities in 2010 has made me deeply impatient."
13/04/2011 | Session
In a text adopted today PACE called on the relevant member states of the CoE and the EU to more rigorously enforce the implementation of the recommendations of the Bern Convention and its expert bodies starting by increasing its international visibility and by assessing the progress of this implementation. The Bern Convention which was created over 30 years ago is designed to protect wild plants and animals, particularly endangered ones in their natural habitat.
13/04/2011 | Session
61 years after Turkey ratified the statute of the Council of Europe, the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in his address to the Assembly, paid tribute to the Organisation’s work against all forms of discrimination and in pursuit of respect for human dignity. Recalling the historical meeting of the Christian and Muslim worlds, Erdoğan indicated that a future based on peace could only be built on an understanding of history as cultural interaction and convergence, rather than as war, conflict and polarisation.
13/04/2011 | Session
PACE today expressed serious concern about the high number of acts of violence committed in schools, mainly involving attacks by pupils with or without weapons, bullying and harassment among pupils, sexual violence and acts of hostility or even aggression against teachers by pupils. In a resolution adopted today on the basis of a report by Gvozden Srećko Flego (Croatia, SOC), the Assembly advocates a series of measures for education against violence at school, which parliaments should endorse at national level.
13/04/2011 | Session
Given the increase in obesity and type 2 diabetes affecting children and young people, the Assembly today appealed to European governments to “respond urgently to this public health crisis”. The text adopted on the basis of proposals by Mike Hancock (United Kingdom, ALDE) advocates measures to promote healthy eating habits, healthy lifestyles and a healthy environment. The participation of children and young people in the design of public health programmes intended for them is “an important condition for their successful implementation”.
12/04/2011 | Session
At the opening of this morning’s sitting, members of the Assembly stood for a minute of silence in memory of the victims of yesterday’s terrorist attack in Minsk. PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu declared: “On behalf of the Assembly, I would like to condemn most strongly what appears to be a terrorist act which happened yesterday evening in the Minsk Underground..."
12/04/2011 | Session
Following a debate which brought together leading religious figures from across Europe, PACE has called for “a new culture of living together” based on the assertion of everyone’s equal dignity and adherence to the Council of Europe’s basic principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Adopting a recommendation based on a report by Anne Brasseur (Luxembourg, ALDE) on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue, the parliamentarians called on Europe’s governments to set up a new “platform for dialogue”.
12/04/2011 | Session
The human rights situation in Belarus has “not improved” since January 2011, on the contrary, and therefore there can be “no progress” in relations between the Assembly and Belarus, according to PACE’s rapporteur on Belarus Sinikka Hurskainen (Finland, SOC).