19/01/2005 | News
Addresses by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili are among highlights of the winter session of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), which takes place in Strasbourg from 24 to 28 January 2005. Mr Yushchenko will speak provisionally on Tuesday afternoon, and Mr Saakashvili on Wednesday morning. Another highlight is a debate during which the Assembly will put forward its proposals for the coming Third Summit of the Council of Europe.
16/12/2004 | News
The Monitoring Committee also adopted, during its meeting on 15 December, a draft resolution on the honouring of obligations and commitments by Georgia. According to the co-rapporteurs (Matyas Eörsi, Hungary, LDR, and Evgueni Kirilov, Bulgaria, SOC), a year after coming into power, the new Georgian authorities continue to demonstrate an unyielding resolve to carry out far-reaching political, legal, social and economic reforms. However, the post-revolutionary situation should not become an alibi for hasty decisions and neglect for democratic and human rights standards.
13/12/2004 | News
Jamal al-Harith, a British man who was detained by the United States at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, will address PACE's Legal Affairs Committee during a hearing on "The lawfulness of detentions by the United States in Guantánamo Bay" in Paris on Friday 17 December 2004. Other participants include forensic psychiatrist Dr James MacKeith, who will discuss the psychological consequences of indeterminate detention, along with representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Venice Commission and Amnesty International. US diplomatic representatives have also been invited.
23/11/2004 | News
The Chairman of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly Peter Schieder and the Secretary General Terry Davis express their deep concern about the irregularities observed during the presidential elections in Ukraine. These irregularities have increased significantly in the second round as confirmed by numerous independent observers and increased considerably the risk of a serious political crisis in Ukraine because many Ukrainians do not accept the results announced by the Ukrainian Central Election Commission.
23/11/2004 | News
PACE President today urged his fellow-parliamentarians and European leaders to be on the alert for, and to take action against, the resurgence of racist and xenophobic acts in Europe. At a meeting of the PACE Bureau and Standing Committee in Warsaw - on topics including preparations for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, to be commemorated in the Assembly Chamber on 27 January 2005 - Mr Schieder expressed his regret that 60 years after the liberation of Auschwitz it was still necessary to fight racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance.
23/11/2004 | News
The Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) meeting in Warsaw today, stressed the importance of the organisation of the election of a successor to Yasser Arafat. It decided to send a delegation to observe the election of the President of the Palestinian Authority.
22/11/2004 | News
The second round of the presidential election in Ukraine on 21 November did not meet a considerable number of OSCE commitments, Council of Europe and other European standards for democratic elections. As in the first round, state executive authorities and the Central Election Commission displayed a lack of will to conduct a genuine democratic election process, concluded the International Election Observation Mission.
18/11/2004 | News
The PACE Standing Committee met in Warsaw on Tuesday 23 November at the invitation of the Polish Parliament. The meeting was opened by PACE President Peter Schieder and the Speaker of the Sejm Jόzef Oleksy. The participants held an exchange of views with Polish Foreign Minister Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the 46-nation Organisation, which focused on the 3rd Summit of Heads and State and Government, which will be held in Warsaw under the Polish chairmanship on 16-17 May 2005. In the framework of the Council of Europe’s increased efforts to combat terrorism, the parliamentarians adopted a text on ‘combating terrorism through culture’.
12/11/2004 | News
It is time for national parliaments in South-East Europe to take the lead in overseeing the Stability Pact, according to the head of the PACE delegation to a conference on the Pact’s efforts to fight organised crime in the region. Addressing the fifth conference of the Parliamentary Troika – which brings together the parliamentary bodies of the Council of Europe, OSCE and European Union to support and oversee the Pact – Tony Lloyd (United Kingdom, SOC) said: “Our conferences sometimes amounted to speaking about countries directly affected by the Pact, not with them.” He also called for more focused meetings on narrower subjects.
10/11/2004 | News
A seminar for senior legal advisers from the parliaments of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, organised at the initiative of PACE Secretary General Bruno Haller, concluded in Strasbourg yesterday with expressions of warm appreciation from all three delegations. The Assembly’s Director of Interparliamentary Relations Jan Kleijssen said the seminar – the first of its kind, which included briefings on monitoring procedures, ratification of Council of Europe treaties, human rights standards and the work of the Court – had been intended to “respond to practical needs” in a key area of parliamentary work, and pledged further assistance in the future.
18/10/2004 | News
At the opening sitting of the International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the Cairo Programme of Action, Marcel Glesener (Luxembourg, EPP/CD), on behalf of the Assembly, pointed out the importance of parliamentarians’ role in the campaign to improve sexual and reproductive health. There were still major challenges to be met, especially fund-raising to help set up sex education programmes and family planning services. “I am sure we parliamentarians can play a decisive part in this policy by trying to convince our governments to take all the necessary steps,” he said.
18/10/2004 | News
"The right to protection of health is also part of the Council of Europe acquis. The right to sexual and reproductive health implies, that people are able to enjoy a mutually satisfying and safe relationship, free from coercion or violence, without fear of Sexually Transmitted Infections, including HIV/Aids or unwanted pregnancies", Christine Mc Cafferty (United Kingdom, SOC) said at the International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the Cairo Programme of Action. "Many Council of Europe member states have very high standards of sexual and reproductive health, taking into account indicators such as contraceptive use, HIV/AIDS prevalence, abortion rates, maternal and child morbidity and mortality rates. Their experiences can serve as a useful example to other member states as, unfortunately, there is enormous disparity of standards between member States and even within member States", she stressed.