09/09/2020 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Meeting by videoconference today, PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights adopted the following statement on the human rights situation in Belarus: "The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights stands with the courageous people of Belarus who are fighting for their rights and dignity...
09/09/2020 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Committee on Legal Affairs expressed its concern by the numerous cases of violations of lawyers’ rights, including attacks on their safety and independence, in recent years. Lawyers continue to be targeted for their involvement in human rights-related cases, or for their work denouncing...
08/09/2020 | President
Speaking during an exchange of views on Belarus, organised by the Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee, PACE President Rik Daems stressed that “a solution will only come from the Belarusian people”. In a pressing plea for non-violence, he called for an immediate end to unlawful detentions...
08/09/2020 | Political Affairs and Democracy
“My country, my nation, my people now need help,” said Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, former Belarusian presidential candidate, addressing PACE's Political Affairs Committee today during an exchange of views on the situation in Belarus following the Presidential election. “Peaceful protesters have been...
08/09/2020 | Political Affairs and Democracy
“The prevailing political situation in Belarus is to evolve. We understand that it has not kept up with the times”, Andrei Savinykh, Chairperson of the Standing Commission on International Affairs of the National Assembly of Belarus, said today addressing PACE Political Affairs Committee during a...
08/09/2020 | Political Affairs and Democracy
“The events that have unfolded following the presidential election of 9 August 2020, including the disproportionate use of force and widespread detentions of peaceful protesters, confirm the need for substantial reforms to bring Belarus’s legislation, institutions and practices in line with...
07/09/2020 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Former Belarusian presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is to address PACE's Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy by videoconference on 8 September 2020 during an exchange of views on the situation in Belarus following the 9 August Presidential election. Andrei Savinykh...
07/09/2020 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
PACE’s Migration Committee has strongly condemned attacks on NGOs and their donors who are assisting refugees and migrants and said that governments or political organisations should not use such NGOs as “vehicles for extending their sphere of influence through political agitation”. It pointed...
07/09/2020 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
According to the Migration Committee, which today adopted the report by Pierre-Alain Fridez (Switzerland, SOC) on the humanitarian consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for migrants and refugees, these vulnerable groups are “doubly impacted” in this crisis situation. Indeed, the adopted text...
04/09/2020 | Monitoring
Three PACE rapporteurs have urged the Azerbaijan authorities to review the case of opposition politician Tofig Yagublu, who has just been sentenced to four years and three months in prison on charges of “hooliganism”. Mr Yagublu, one of Azerbaijan’s leading opposition politicians and a member of...
04/09/2020 | Monitoring
PACE’s co-rapporteurs for post-monitoring dialogue with Bulgaria, Frank Schwabe (Germany, SOC) and Aleksander Pociej (Poland, EPP/CD), have expressed their concern at the violent developments which took place during a rally outside the Bulgarian parliament in Sofia on Wednesday. “We are alarmed...
02/09/2020 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE General Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders in Council of Europe member states, Alexandra Louis (France, ALDE), together with the co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Turkey, Thomas Hammarberg (Sweden, SOC) and John Howell (United Kingdom, CE/DA), have reacted to the death...