05/02/2026 | News
The former President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Theodoros Rousopoulos, presented the fifth 2026 ‘Human Rights in Motion’ Award at the FIPADOC documentary award ceremony in Biarritz. The international jury selected Trade Secret, a documentary by Australian...
18/11/2025 | News
To mark the 75th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights, PACE and the Strasbourg Court jointly hosted a screening of Greek director Costa-Gavras’ acclaimed film “Z” on 17 November at the Cinéma Le Cosmos in Strasbourg. Opening the event, PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos...
07/11/2025 | News
As part of the World Forum for Democracy 2025 in Strasbourg, leading figures in democracy and human rights gathered to reflect on the future of citizen participation in modern societies. Opening the third plenary session via video, Venezuelan political figure and human rights defender María...
18/09/2024 | News
Parliamentary hearings on the humanitarian situation in the Middle East and on “Long Covid” were among items on the agenda of PACE’s Committee on Social, Health and Family Affairs, which met at the Portuguese Parliament in Lisbon on 12-13 September. The hearing on “The humanitarian situation of...
17/05/2024 | News
As the Council of Europe marks its 75th anniversary, leading members of the Assembly have been reflecting on how the organisation has shaped their country in a series of online video birthday tributes. PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos invited the heads of the Assembly’s national delegations...
10/12/2023 | News
PACE Vice-President Olena Khomenko (Ukraine, CE/AD) participated in the first meeting of the International Coalition of Countries for the Return of Ukrainian Children, representing PACE on behalf of President Tiny Kox. “As parliamentarians, we can employ many instruments to increase awareness on...
04/03/2022 | News
Following the decision to suspend the Russian Federation’s rights of representation in the Council of Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly is to hold an extraordinary plenary session in hybrid mode on 14 and 15 March 2022. An urgent debate on "Russian Federation's armed attack against Ukraine: the...
24/01/2021 | News
Sunna Aevarsdottir (Iceland, SOC), rapporteur on political prisoners in Russia, and Jacques Maire (France, ALDE), rapporteur on the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, have reacted to events in the Russian Federation. “I am deeply concerned about the situation in Russia. Tens of thousands of citizens...
18/01/2021 | News
Jacques Maire (ALDE, France), rapporteur on the poisoning of Alexei Navalny for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), together with the two co-rapporteurs for PACE’s monitoring of the Russian Federation, Axel Schäfer (Germany, SOC) and Ria Oomen-Ruijten (Netherlands, EPP/CD...
24/04/2020 | News
Referring to their previous statements, the monitoring co-rapporteurs for Turkey Thomas Hammarberg and John Howell, as well as Boriss Cilevičs, rapporteur on “Should politicians be prosecuted for statements made in the exercise of their mandates?”, have welcomed the adoption on 14 April of the Criminal Enforcement Law, allowing the early or conditional release of 90 000 prisoners to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in overcrowded prisons, but have regretted its discriminatory approach with regard to certain groups of prisoners.
09/04/2020 | News
The co-rapporteurs on the monitoring of Azerbaijan, Stefan Schennach and Sir Roger Gale, along with the rapporteur on reported cases of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, Sunna Ævarsdottir, have welcomed the Presidential Decree issued by President Aliyev pardoning 176 prisoners aged over 65 in need of special care due to their age and state of health, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
09/03/2020 | News
All meetings of the Parliamentary Assembly or its subsidiary bodies until the end of March have been postponed, as well as all non-essential travel by members carrying out Assembly business or by staff.