30/11/2023 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
The PACE General Rapporteur on human rights defenders and whistle-blowers, Emanuelis Zingeris (Lithuania, EPP/CD), and PACE General Rapporteur on the rights of LGBTI people, Christophe Lacroix (Belgium, SOC), have condemned today’s decision of the Russian Supreme Court to outlaw the...
23/11/2023 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“Violence against women and girls is still one of the most serious human rights violations across Europe and throughout the world, deeply rooted as it is in multiple forms of gender inequality and discrimination. Despite progress, better laws and better policies in many countries, women’s rights...
20/11/2023 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
"20 November is a day to honour the memory of transgender victims of hatred. They are discriminated against and persecuted around the world, victims of harassment, physical and psychological violence and hate crimes," stated Christophe Lacroix (Belgium, SOC), General Rapporteur of the Assembly on...
25/10/2023 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
The Parliamentary Assembly’s General Rapporteur on the rights of LGBTI people, in a statement on the eve of Intersex Awareness Day (26 October 2023), has called for an end to surgical or hormonal procedures which cause serious physical harm to intersex persons. "These procedures are regularly...
16/10/2023 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
PACE’s Equality Committee called on member States to take urgent action to address systemic human rights violations against the Roma and Traveller communities. In a draft resolution, the committee highlighted the ongoing brutality and discrimination faced by these minority groups at the hands of...
15/09/2023 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
"It was while accompanying victims in court that I realised that the French Criminal Code did not protect victims," Catherine Le Magueresse, Associate Researcher at the Sorbonne’s Institut des Sciences Juridique et Philosophique, said today at the opening of a hearing on "Gender-based violence...
14/09/2023 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
Violence against women with disabilities, whether physical, sexual, structural, psychological or economic, remains a taboo subject, underlined the PACE Committee on Equality. “Society infantilises women with disabilities by not allowing them to make informed choices about their lives, including...
04/09/2023 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“On the occasion of Belgrade Pride week, 4-9 September 2023, and of the anniversary of Belgrade EuroPride 2022, I take this opportunity to remind the Serbian authorities that as a State party to the European Convention on Human Rights, Serbia has committed itself to protecting individual rights...
01/08/2023 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“On 2 August, we remember and honour the victims of the genocide perpetrated against Roma during the Second World War,” said the Parliamentary Assembly’s General Rapporteur on combating racism and intolerance, Petra Bayr (Austria, SOC), speaking ahead of Roma Holocaust Memorial Day 2023...
31/05/2023 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“I am deeply concerned by new reports that LGBTI people and activists defending their rights in Azerbaijan have again been targeted by police officers,” said Christophe Lacroix (Belgium, SOC), General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the rights of LGBTI persons...
27/04/2023 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
Increasing reliance on digital technologies in all fields of life risks leaving behind people who are unfamiliar with or do not have full access to all the necessary tools, exacerbating existing inequalities in society and creating new ones. Calling on States to take comprehensive measures to...
21/03/2023 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
Statement by Petra Bayr (Austria, SOC), PACE General Rapporteur on combating racism and intolerance, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: “Each year, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is a chance to take stock of...