22/10/2020 | Standing Committee
PACE’s Standing Committee is calling for a “dedicated legal instrument”, preferably binding and with global reach, to ensure Artificial Intelligence respects human rights principles, particularly in health care. It would lay down benchmarks in areas such as privacy, confidentiality, the safety of...
21/10/2020 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The time has come to make the world more ‘autism-friendly’, PACE’s Social Affairs Committee has urged, calling for “person-centred and life-long support” for people with autism and their families. In a resolution based on a report by Sevinj Fataliyeva (Azerbaijan, EC/DA), approved today during a...
21/10/2020 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“The horrendous murder of French teacher Samuel Paty on the outskirts of Paris, currently investigated as an act of terrorism, is not only an abominable crime, but also an attack against freedom of expression and peaceful living together, in France and the whole of Europe”, said Momodou Malcolm...
19/10/2020 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE’s rapporteur on ensuring accountability for the downing of flight MH17 Titus Corlăţean (Romania, SOC) has regretted the withdrawal of Russia from trilateral talks with the Netherlands and Australia concerning the 2014 downing of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers on...
16/10/2020 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE’s General Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders in Council of Europe member states, Alexandra Louis (France, ALDE), today made the following statement: “Three years after the detention of Jordi Cuixart, human rights defender and President of the Catalan association Omnium...
16/10/2020 | Monitoring
PACE’s Monitoring Committee has strongly condemned new crackdowns on political opposition and civil dissent in recent months in Turkey and urged the Turkish authorities to “take meaningful steps” to improve standards in the field of democracy, rule of law and human rights. Unanimously approving a...
15/10/2020 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
“Another year has passed, the third, and still there is no justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia,” declared Pieter Omtzigt, the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly’s (PACE) rapporteur for follow-up to Resolution 2293 (2019) on Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination and the rule of law in...
15/10/2020 | Political Affairs and Democracy
“The unilateral move to open the closed parts of Varosha is clearly contrary to the provisions of the standing international resolutions on the Cyprus issue,” said Dame Cheryl Gillan (United Kingdom, EC/DA), Chair of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy of the Parliamentary Assembly...
13/10/2020 | Standing Committee
“All measures restricting human rights taken in response to a public health emergency must be ‘lawful, proportionate and non-discriminatory’,” said the PACE Standing Committee, meeting today by videoconference. According to the parliamentarians, these restrictive measures should be reviewed in...
13/10/2020 | Standing Committee
As states reintroduce extraordinary measures to deal with recent increases in the COVID-19 virus, PACE’s Standing Committee has again warned that “democracy, human rights and the rule of law cannot be allowed to become the collateral damage of the pandemic”. While supporting States and public...
13/10/2020 | Standing Committee
“The COVID-19 pandemic has been an accelerator of the problems we were already facing but were refusing to address. We now have no excuses. We can no longer procrastinate in realising human rights for all”, today said Dunja Mijatović, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, presenting...
13/10/2020 | President
The Greek Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chair of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, the President of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Rik Daems, and the Secretary General of the 47-nation Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić...