16/03/2021 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
High-level officials from the United Nations, European Union, World Health Organisation and Council of Europe came together for a parliamentary hearing on the deinstitutionalisation of people with disabilities, focusing also on the emerging consensus on how to end coercion in mental health, and...
15/03/2021 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
The Migration Committee today expressed its deep concern about the extremely serious humanitarian situation of refugees and migrants in many countries in North Africa and the Middle East, a transit region towards Europe for these people, many of whom risk their lives on the Mediterranean Sea. In...
15/03/2021 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
A PACE committee has called for the elaboration of a European policy on diasporas, and has suggested the Council of Europe should take the lead in this work. In a resolution and recommendation based on a report by Paulo Pisco (Portugal, SOC), PACE’s Migration Committee spelled out a series of...
15/03/2021 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
Racism, including Afrophobia or anti-Black racism, is still “rife in Europe”, according to PACE’s Equality Committee, but recent increased public awareness of the problem has created a “window of opportunity” for determined action to eradicate it. Unanimously approving a report by Momodou Malcolm...
15/03/2021 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
A PACE public hearing on the deinstitutionalisation of persons with disabilities is to be streamed live at 2 p.m. CET on Tuesday 16 March. Organised by the Assembly’s Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development, the hearing will bring together a series of high-level officials...
15/03/2021 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
Although significant progress has been made with regard to the participation of women in political and public decision-making in Europe, such progress is too slow and uneven. In addition, there is still a lack of participation and representation in political and public decision-making of women...
15/03/2021 | President
On the first day of his working visit to the Russian Federation, the President of the Assembly met with Vyacheslav Volodin, Speaker of the State Duma, and Valentina Matvienko, Speaker of the Federation Council. Discussions focused on the 25th anniversary of the Russian Federation’s membership of...
12/03/2021 | Election observation
A pre-electoral delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) visited Sofia to assess the election campaign and the state of preparations for the parliamentary elections to be held on 4 April 2021. The PACE pre-electoral delegation recalls that the Assembly has...
10/03/2021 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
On 15 March, PACE’s Sub-Committee on Gender Equality and the “Women Free from Violence” Parliamentary Network will join forces with the Swiss authorities for an event taking place on the fringes of the 65th session of the Commission for the Status of Women, the United Nations body dedicated to...
10/03/2021 | Election observation
A four-member delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), headed by Alfred Heer (Switzerland, ALDE), is to make a pre-electoral visit to Bulgaria on 11-12 March 2021 to assess the election preparations and campaign ahead of the 4th April parliamentary elections. In...
09/03/2021 | President
Rik Daems, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), will make a working visit to Moscow on 15-16 March, during which he will hold a series of high-level meetings, in particular with the Speaker of the Russian State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin; the Speaker of Russia's...
08/03/2021 | President
According to the PACE President, “men and women need to push together more forcefully for change to come. This is our responsibility, as citizens and as politicians.”For PACE Equality Committee Chair Petra Bayr (Austria, SOC), "we just can’t afford to keep ignoring the knowledge and experience we...