23/12/2020 | Monitoring
“Selahattin Demirtaş must be freed from prison - and free to exercise his political rights in a democratic society again without further delay”, said the PACE rapporteurs for the monitoring of Turkey Thomas Hammarberg (Sweden, SOC) and John Howell (United Kingdom, EC/DA), and Boriss Cilevičs...
21/12/2020 | President
In an end-of-year video message, PACE President Rik Daems has extended warm greetings of peace and good health to citizens across Europe – and urged everyone to work together to tackle the coming challenges of 2021. “2020 has seen unprecedented challenges for all of us individually, for our...
21/12/2020 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“Hundreds of cases of infiltration of law enforcement bodies and the military by racist and far-right extremists have been reported over the last few years and investigated recently by French and German medias,” today said Momodou Malcolm Jallow (Sweden, UEL), PACE General Rapporteur on racism...
21/12/2020 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
A PACE committee has approved a wide-ranging report making a series of ethical, legal and practical recommendations for the safe and fair worldwide deployment of vaccines against Covid-19, and to encourage their uptake in the face of “vaccine hesitancy”. “Scientists have done a remarkable job in...
21/12/2020 | Monitoring
PACE monitors for Turkey Thomas Hammarberg (Sweden, SOC) and John Howell (United Kingdom, EC/DA) and Alexandra Louis (France, ALDE), PACE rapporteur on Restrictions on NGO activities in Council of Europe member States, expressed their deep concern about possible new restrictions which could be...
18/12/2020 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
On International Migrants Day, Pierre-Alain Fridez (Switzerland, SOC), Chair of the Migration Committee, made a pressing appeal for increased protection of migrant workers against exploitation and the violation of their human rights. “Thirty years ago, on 18 December 1990, the United Nations...
15/12/2020 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
The head of the monitoring body for the Istanbul Convention, the Council of Europe’s global treaty to combat violence against women and domestic violence, has again urged all European states to sign up to the Convention – and firmly rejected the suggestion by some governments that national...
14/12/2020 | President
The heads of the UN and PACE have agreed to step up co-operation towards building a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and called for a paradigm shift to turn this from a policy issue into one of “binding principle”. During a meeting in New York on 11 December, PACE President Rik...
14/12/2020 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
Delphine O., the French Government’s Ambassador for Women's Rights and Secretary General of the Generation Equality Forum 2021, presented this Forum to the members of the Assembly’s Women Free from Violence parliamentary network, meeting today. The Generation Equality Forum, organised at the...
11/12/2020 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
At its next meeting on 14 December by videoconference, the Parliamentary Network Women Free from Violence will exchange views on the Generation Equality Forum to be held in 2021 in Mexico and Paris by UN Women, after a presentation of the Forum by Ambassador Delphine O, Secretary General of the...
11/12/2020 | Monitoring
The Monitoring Committee has adopted today an annual report taking stock of its monitoring activities in 2020 and making a series of assessments of the progress of the countries subject to its monitoring procedure or engaged in post-monitoring dialogue. There are eleven countries subject to the...
11/12/2020 | Parliamentary support
The functioning of Ukraine’s system of parliamentary oversight of human rights was the subject of two online round tables on 7 and 11 December 2020, organised by PACE together with the Council of Europe’s Directorate General of Human Rights and the Rule of Law. The events formed part of the...