27/01/2022 | Session
“The risk of a new military confrontation in the heart of Europe is not a remote one,” said Zsolt Nemeth (Hungary, EC/DA), opening a current affairs debate on the topic of recent challenges to security in Europe. Outlining a series of new threats around Europe and the world, Mr Nemeth said the...
27/01/2022 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE today launches a new Parliamentary Network for a Healthy Environment, bringing together almost 30 parliamentarians from some 20 different parliaments across the Council of Europe area to demand that governments create a legal right to a healthy environment and take other urgent steps to deal...
27/01/2022 | Session
PACE has welcomed the fact that Armenia has “successfully emerged from the serious political crisis triggered by the outcome in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict” as well as its pursuit of reforms and the launch of new projects since the change of political leadership in 2018. Approving a resolution...
26/01/2022 | Session
Football’s main stakeholders must put human rights values at the heart of the sport, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said today in a wide-ranging resolution on football governance. The adopted text, based on the report prepared by Lord George Foulkes (United Kingdom...
26/01/2022 | Session
The Covid-19 pandemic has completely disrupted the world of sport and decisive action is now needed to preserve sport and physical activity as factors for human development and personal and collective well-being, as well as for social development and economic growth, the Assembly said. Adopting a...
26/01/2022 | Session
PACE has ratified the credentials of the Russian parliamentary delegation by 97 votes to 41 after they were challenged on substantive grounds on the opening day of the session. At the same time, it expressed its “utmost concern” over the deteriorating situation as regards pluralism, human rights...
26/01/2022 | Session
In a debate held today at its plenary session in Strasbourg, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) noted “the ample medical evidence” showing that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with an organophosphorus cholinesterase inhibitor whilst in Russia. It underlined that five different...
25/01/2022 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Pieter Omtzigt (Netherlands, EPP/CD), the Parliamentary Assembly‘s General Rapporteur on the Protection of Whistleblowers, has welcomed yesterday’s decision of the United Kingdom’s High Court to grant leave to Julian Assange to appeal to the Supreme Court on a point of law raised by his legal...
25/01/2022 | Session
The Parliamentary Assembly expressed concern at the increase in hate speech, violence and hate crimes against LGBTI people in Council of Europe member States. “The scapegoating and violations of LGBTI people’s civil rights come to a large extent from political figures, including government...
25/01/2022 | Session
The Assembly expressed concern about the situation of LGBTI people in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, noting that “many infringements of these people’s human rights have been alleged or confirmed”. Those countries should adopt effective legislation and “policies to strengthen action against...
25/01/2022 | Session
Addressing PACE today, Željko Komšić, Chairperson of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, presented the socio-political situation in his country, after recalling the significant historical events since the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992, including the period of war that “led...
25/01/2022 | Session
European countries should support the media in times of crisis “so that the latter can perform their various roles to the full”, PACE said today. Approving a resolution on the basis of a report by Annicka Engblom (Sweden, EPP/CD), the Assembly said media in a crisis could be a source of objective...