21/09/2022 | President
Tiny Kox, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), has made the following statement: “I strongly condemn the decision to organise so-called ‘referendums’ in the areas of Ukraine illegally occupied by the Russian army. This is a clear attempt to annex part of...
20/09/2022 | Election observation
A parliamentary conference on the theme “Holding elections in a time of crisis: challenges and opportunities” is to be held on 9 and 10 May 2023 in Bern, Switzerland, organised jointly by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Swiss Parliament in the context of the...
17/09/2022 | President
Statement by PACE President Tiny Kox: "Today, 17 September 2022, is a sad day for Europe. As of today, more than 140 million Russian citizens will be deprived of their right to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. This is a direct and inevitable consequence of the ending of the Russian...
16/09/2022 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
PACE's Equality and Non-Discrimination Committee has expressed its deep concern at the steady increase in manifestations of Islamophobia in Europe, "which has reached a dramatic spike in recent years". According to the Committee, stereotyping based on depicting Muslims as alien to, and...
16/09/2022 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“There is an urgent need to prevent gender-based violence, sexism, discrimination and gender stereotypes in the world of sport, promote gender equality, invest in sport for all, and put an end to the invisibility of women and girls,” said the Equality Committee meeting in Paris today. The report...
14/09/2022 | Monitoring
Long-standing issues pertaining to the rule of law and democracy in Hungary “remain largely unaddressed by the authorities”, PACE’s Monitoring Committee has said in its latest assessment of the country’s honouring of its Council of Europe membership obligations. In light of this, the committee...
14/09/2022 | Monitoring
In April 2017, the Parliamentary Assembly decided to place Türkiye under the monitoring procedure. Since then, it has closely followed the developments in the country focusing specifically on the implementation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, the judiciary, and challenges...
13/09/2022 | Political Affairs and Democracy
In 2003, the EU expressed its unequivocal support for the European perspective of the Western Balkans, but the length of time that has elapsed and failure to adequately reward progress have sapped political momentum and public enthusiasm. “The European vision is losing its shine. In its place...
13/09/2022 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE’s Political Affairs Committee has urged the United Kingdom to ensure that Brexit does not result in any diminution of rights for the people of Northern Ireland, warning that the withdrawal from the European Union had “reignited deep-seated tensions in Northern Irish society, furthering...
13/09/2022 | Political Affairs and Democracy
The Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy has made the following declaration for the International Day of Democracy (15 September): The world is confronted with epochal and global challenges which interact and magnify each other’s effects. In Ukraine, people are losing their lives and...
13/09/2022 | President
Following the last night’s escalation of violence along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, which has reportedly already caused numerous casualties and significant damage, Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Chair of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers Simon Coveney, and the...
13/09/2022 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The compulsory use of Covid passes, in particular vaccine passes – aimed at restricting travelling and access to certain public venues – entails risks of discrimination and infringements of human rights and fundamental freedoms, according to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights. The...