20/11/2020 | Standing Committee
In light of the situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, PACE’s Standing Committee has unanimously approved modifications to the Rules of Procedure to enable the Assembly to hold remote or hybrid plenary sessions in exceptional circumstances. Approving a report by Frank Schwabe (Germany, SOC...
13/10/2020 | Standing Committee
“All measures restricting human rights taken in response to a public health emergency must be ‘lawful, proportionate and non-discriminatory’,” said the PACE Standing Committee, meeting today by videoconference. According to the parliamentarians, these restrictive measures should be reviewed in...
13/10/2020 | Standing Committee
As states reintroduce extraordinary measures to deal with recent increases in the COVID-19 virus, PACE’s Standing Committee has again warned that “democracy, human rights and the rule of law cannot be allowed to become the collateral damage of the pandemic”. While supporting States and public...
13/10/2020 | Standing Committee
“The COVID-19 pandemic has been an accelerator of the problems we were already facing but were refusing to address. We now have no excuses. We can no longer procrastinate in realising human rights for all”, today said Dunja Mijatović, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, presenting...
13/10/2020 | Standing Committee
PACE has urged governments to avoid “one size fits all” responses to pandemics or other similar crises, and ensure they always act inclusively and take account of the diversity of society when shaping emergency measures in future. Approving a resolution based on a report by Petra Stienen...
13/10/2020 | Standing Committee
By adopting a resolution today, based on the report by Pierre-Alain Fridez (Switzerland, SOC) on the humanitarian consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for migrants and refugees, the Standing Committee, meeting by videoconference, said that these vulnerable groups were “doubly affected” by the...
12/10/2020 | Standing Committee
OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria has appealed to the world’s nations not to stop the extra economic stimulus provided during the period of the COVID pandemic too soon. In an exchange of views by teleconference with members of the Parliamentary Assembly’s ‘enlarged’ Standing Committee, the OECD...
23/09/2020 | Political Affairs and Democracy
As states reintroduce extraordinary measures to deal with recent increases in the COVID-19 virus, PACE’s Political Affairs Committee has again warned that “democracy, human rights and the rule of law cannot be allowed to become the collateral damage of the pandemic”. While supporting States and...
22/09/2020 | President
During a private audience on 21 September with Pope Francis, PACE President Rik Daems shared with His Holiness his conviction that a healthy environment should be considered a human right, and his hope that this could eventually be enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights in the form...
14/09/2020 | President
“Strong and healthy democratic societies rely and thrive on equality, freedom, good governance, dignity, inclusiveness,” said Rik Daems, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), speaking on the eve of the International Day of Democracy (15 September). “We are...
07/09/2020 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
According to the Migration Committee, which today adopted the report by Pierre-Alain Fridez (Switzerland, SOC) on the humanitarian consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for migrants and refugees, these vulnerable groups are “doubly impacted” in this crisis situation. Indeed, the adopted text...
29/07/2020 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
“Human trafficking is like a global pandemic,” said Pierre-Alain Fridez (Switzerland, SOC), Chairperson of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons, on the eve of the World Day against Trafficking in Human Beings held on 30 July. “None of us – neither governments, parliaments...