05/05/2021 | President
Celebrating Europe Day and the founding of the Council of Europe, home to 47 member States and more than 830 million Europeans, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly made the following statement: “The Covid-19 crisis has brought about unprecedented, multi-faceted, wide-ranging and no doubt...
04/05/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Vladimir Vardanyan (Armenia, EPP/CD), General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty, has welcomed the recent pardon of the two brothers Illia and Stanislau Kostseu, who had been on death row. “I am very satisfied with this...
04/05/2021 | President
Rik Daems, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), has strongly regretted that Jacques Maire, member of the Assembly, President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group in the Assembly, and Assembly Rapporteur, including for matters...
03/05/2021 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
Stefan Schennach (Austria, SOC), General Rapporteur on media freedom and the safety of journalists for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), has today expressed concern over the decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation to add the independent Latvia-based...
28/04/2021 | Prizes
The deadline for the submission of nominations for the 2021 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize has been extended by two months. The new deadline is 30 June 2021, instead of the original deadline of 30 April. The Václav Havel Human Rights Prize is awarded annually by the Parliamentary Assembly of the...
26/04/2021 | Election observation
The Albanian parliamentary elections were characterized by a lively and inclusive campaign, thanks to a legal framework that helped ensure respect of fundamental freedoms. At the same time the campaign saw authorities taking advantage of public office and allegations of pervasive vote buying...
22/04/2021 | Session
During its Spring Session 2021, which took place in a hybrid format, the Assembly held urgent debates on "The arrest and detention of Alexei Navalny in January 2021" and on "The functioning of democratic institutions in Turkey", as well as current affairs debates on "Covid passports or...
22/04/2021 | Monitoring
"The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the developments since the trilateral statement of 9-10 November 2020 are of great importance to the Council of Europe and have been closely followed by the Monitoring Committee. In co-ordination with other relevant committees, it has...
22/04/2021 | Session
PACE has invited the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers to “use all the tools at its disposal”, including under Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to ensure full and prompt execution of the Strasbourg Court’s ruling in the case of Navalnyye v. Russia, and in particular...
22/04/2021 | Session
"At a time when democracy is under pressure, when nationalism, populism and authoritarianism are on the rise, it is important for the German Chairmanship to strengthen the Council of Europe in its core tasks, namely the defence of the rule of law, democracy and human rights,” Michael Roth, German...
22/04/2021 | Session
The Assembly today strongly reiterated its call on the Turkish authorities “to put an end to laws and practices that contravene democratic standards, to revise its legislation and constitutional framework in order to ensure the separation of powers, to restore freedom of speech and media freedom...
21/04/2021 | Session
"We need a more efficient, more flexible, more resilient and more democratic European Union," European Parliament President David Sassoli told PACE today. Referring to the global health crisis, Mr Sassoli stressed that the only way to overcome it was "through solidarity, within Europe and with...