21/06/2005 | News
"Within a year of its accession to the Council of Europe, Bosnia and Herzegovina fulfilled almost all major formal commitments. We hope you will show the same determination in implementing the adopted legislation and all Council of Europe standards," PACE President René van der Linden said today in his welcoming address to Adnan Terzic, Prime Minister of Bosnia-Herzegovina. "The recent increase in the number of voluntary surrenders and transfers of indictees from Bosnia and Herzegovina to the ICTY is to be welcomed. The Council of Europe and this Assembly urges you to continue cooperation with the ICTY to ensure that all indictees that continue to evade international justice are brought before the tribunal. The way towards the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina goes through The Hague," he added.
21/06/2005 | News
René van der Linden made the following statement at the opening of an exhibition at the Council of Europe on “Jews, Christians, Muslims, Peace … Today”, organised by the Association Accord et Fugue under the auspices of the Fondation Saint Thomas: "Meeting in Warsaw a month ago, the Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe member states made the following statement: 'We shall foster European identity and unity, based on shared fundamental values, respect for our common heritage and cultural diversity. We are resolved to ensure that our diversity becomes a source of mutual enrichment, inter alia by fostering political, intercultural and inter-religious dialogue.' With its Abrahamic title, I feel that the exhibition we are now discovering forms part of this dialogue and therefore reflects one of our priorities. Thank you for sharing these works with us, parliamentarians of 46 European states, from the Jewish, Christian, Muslim and other faiths."
21/06/2005 | News
The present undecided status of Kosovo casts uncertainty over the further political stabilisation of the entire region, including its perspectives of European integration and economic recovery. As regards the determination of Kosovo’s future status, PACE today called on the Government of Serbia and Montenegro, the political forces of Kosovo Serbs and other minorities, the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government and Kosovo Albanian political parties “to engage in a genuine dialogue with a view to reaching a peaceful and mutually acceptable solution which requires concessions from both sides”. The Assembly asked the Committee of Ministers “to support the role of the Council of Europe as a facilitator of political dialogue between the parties concerned, in preparation of status talks”.
21/06/2005 | News
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today urged the Palestinian Authority to abolish the death penalty within two years, and decided to support Palestinian legislators in their endeavours to reinstitute a moratorium on executions. Adopting a resolution on the situation in the Middle East on the second day of its plenary session in Strasbourg, PACE strongly condemned the executions of four detainees on 12 June 2005 and said it was “appalled” by the decision of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to end the moratorium on executions decided by his predecessor in 2002.
21/06/2005 | News
While recalling that since 1993 between 350 and 500 women have been brutally murdered in the northern Mexican border State of Chihuahua, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) today called on upon the Mexican Congress “to complete the envisaged constitutional and legislative reforms to fight past or future impunity for such grave human rights violations” and to ensure that prosecutors efficiently, rapidly and transparently investigate every case of “feminicide”. The adopted text underlines that despite a clearly discernible political will, a general commitment and the efforts by the state and federal authorities, “too many cases remain unsolved and too many victims unidentified. It is urgent to move from audit to action in order to end the climate of impunity for gender-based violence still prevalent in the region.”
20/06/2005 | News
The members of PACE’s Committee on Culture, Science and Education, meeting this afternoon in Strasbourg, expressed their relief and joy at the release of the journalist Florence Aubenas and her assistant Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi on 11 June after five months in captivity in Iraq, as well as that of the three Romanian journalists released on 22 May. According to the statement adopted, “by abducting journalists, the kidnappers are first and foremost, and in a most contemptible way, depriving human beings of their freedom, but at the same time they are also seeking to suppress freedom of speech as a whole. We pay tribute to the courage of these professionals who carry out their jobs with determination and devotion in extremely dangerous situations.” The committee recalled that “these subjects have been at the centre of PACE’s discussions since March 2005, resulting today in a plenary debate on media and terrorism”.
20/06/2005 | News
When adopting the order of business of its Summer Session, PACE today decided to hold on Thursday 23 June two urgent debates: one on follow-up to the third Council of Europe Summit and the other on constitutional reform in Armenia. The Assembly also decided to hold a current affairs debate on the situation in the republics of Central Asia (Tuesday 21 June). An assessment of Russia’s honouring of its Council of Europe obligations and commitments and a report on the media and terrorism are among highlights of the session.
20/06/2005 | News
Addressing the Assembly at its summer session in Strasbourg (20–24 June), PACE President René van der Linden stressed that after the referenda which took place in France and the Netherlands on the European Treaty, Europe finds itself in an extremely difficult situation. "If we do not learn from these votes and do not react accordingly, we could soon be on the slippery road back to egocentric nationalism and its dangers," he said. "It causes a standstill instead of progress and optimism. It has a negative impact on the necessary and justified solidarity with central and eastern European countries."
20/06/2005 | News
“Terrorists have learned how to use information technologies in order to disseminate their own audiovisual recordings, electronic messages or web sites on the Internet, which compels states and the media to react accordingly”, today warned the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) meeting in plenary session. The parliamentarians, representing 46 European countries, invited media professionals to develop through their professional organisations “a code of conduct for journalists, photographers and editors dealing with terrorist acts and threats, in order to keep the public informed without contributing unduly to the impact of terrorism”.
20/06/2005 | News
The environmental targets the nations of the world set themselves nearly five years ago are “far from being met”, the Assembly said today. Achieving the eighth Millennium Development Goal – which seeks to enshrine the principle of sustainable development in decision-making at all levels by 2015 – will require “radical changes in the way nature is treated”, the parliamentarians warned. In a separate debate, the Assembly stressed the vital role of the IMF and World Bank in helping the world to meet all eight Millennium Development Goals, which aim to significantly reduce world poverty and promote human health and education by 2015.
06/06/2005 | News
The promotion of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, support for the cultural dimension of the Council of Europe and the strengthening of social cohesion in Europe are among the priorities of the Portuguese chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers. In Lisbon, Diogo Freitas do Amaral, Chair-in-Office of the Committee of Ministers, informed PACE's Standing Committee that he wished to co-operate with the Assembly in achieving these priority objectives. Referring to the rejection of the EU’s Constitutional Treaty in France and the Netherlands, Mr Freitas do Amaral asked the Assembly to continue to work towards European unity in the face of the economic and social challenges with which Europeans had to contend. PACE President René van der Linden announced that the Assembly was to address the issue at the opening of its next plenary session (20-24 June 2005).
06/06/2005 | News
While strikes continue to form an essential ultimate tool for employees to improve their conditions, greater attention needs to be paid to the rights of ordinary citizens to pursue their daily lives unhindered and to the right of society to protect their well-being and its own essential functioning. PACE's Standing Committee today adopted a text on the economic implications of the right to strike in essential services that calls on the governments of the member states to harmonise as far as possible national legislation governing strikes in essential services so that citizens throughout the Council of Europe area can be protected adequately and in a homogeneous manner.