21/09/2023 | Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
The Migration Committee, meeting today in Reykjavik, expressed its concern at the increasing instrumentalisation of the theme of migration and asylum in election campaigns, often reduced to security matters. A partial and biased treatment of this theme legitimises political programmes aimed at...
20/09/2023 | Monitoring
Asim Mollazada (Azerbaijan, EC/DA) and Ionut Stroe (Romania, EPP/CD), co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the monitoring of obligations and commitments by Albania, will make a fact-finding visit to the country from 25 to 28 September 2023. Discussions...
20/09/2023 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Unanimously adopting a draft recommendation, based on the report prepared by Stefan Schennach (Austria, SOC), the PACE Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development urged member States to impose a comprehensive ban on “establishing a pregnancy with germline cells, their...
20/09/2023 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The restrictions imposed to combat the Covid-19 pandemic have had “a devastating effect” on the mental health and well-being of children and young adults – affected in particular by disruption in education, social isolation and economic instability – according to the Committee on Social Affairs...
20/09/2023 | Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons strongly condemned the systematic persecution of women and girls decided on by the Taliban. They called on member States to respect UNHCR’s non-return advisory applying to Afghanistan, but also to Iran and Pakistan, which host more than...
19/09/2023 | President
The President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), Tiny Kox, today made the following statement: "I am deeply shocked by the decision of the government of Azerbaijan to launch a new and aggressive military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh earlier today. In the space of hours this...
15/09/2023 | Monitoring
Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC) and Deborah Bergamini (Italy, EPP/CD), co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), will make a fact-finding visit to Bulgaria on 18-19 September, in the context of the post-monitoring dialogue with this country. During their visit...
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 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE’s General Rapporteur for Political Prisoners, Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC), has expressed deep concern at the ongoing treatment of Russian opposition politician and historian Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was also the winner of the 2022 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize. “Last week the Russian...
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...
13/09/2023 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Ahead of the International Day of Democracy (15 September), PACE Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy adopted the following statement: “Democracy is a universal value, the cornerstone of free and prosperous societies and a precondition for peace. The Russian Federation’s war of aggression...
13/09/2023 | Monitoring
The Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today took stock of the honouring of membership obligations to the Council of Europe by France. Recalling France’s longstanding democratic tradition and its commitment to respect for human rights, the committee...