02/09/2020 | Monitoring
The co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the monitoring of the Russian Federation, Ria Oomen-Ruijten (Netherlands, EPP/CD) and Axel Schäfer (Germany, SOC), have expressed their utmost concern following the German Government's announcement that Russian...
02/09/2020 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
André Gattolin (France, ALDE), the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s (PACE) rapporteur on “Ending enforced disappearances on the territory of the Council of Europe” has today expressed outrage that Dmitry Pavlichenko is still out in the streets of Minsk threatening demonstrators instead...
01/09/2020 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
Stefan Schennach (Austria, SOC), General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on media freedom and the protection of journalists, has today strongly condemned police brutality against peaceful demonstrators in Belarus and the harsh treatment of journalists on...
27/08/2020 | President
In a joint statement by the Alternate Foreign Minister of Greece, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, President of the Committee of Ministers, Rik Daems, President of the Parliamentary Assembly and Marija Pejčinović Burić, Secretary General, the three Council of Europe leaders called on the Belarussian...
18/08/2020 | President
"Events in Belarus demonstrate the paramount importance of the values the Council of Europe stands for. By actively defending their fundamental freedoms, the people of Belarus have chosen the path of democratic change. Therefore, an all-inclusive national political process is urgently needed to...
13/08/2020 | Political Affairs and Democracy
The Chairperson of PACE Political Affairs Committee, Dame Cheryl Gillan (United Kingdom, EC/DA) today made the following statement on the situation in Belarus: "I am concerned by the scenes of violence on the streets of Belarus during the protests that followed last Sunday’s Presidential...
10/08/2020 | President
Following the Presidential election in Belarus, PACE President Rik Daems made the following statement: “I have been following closely the Presidential election in Belarus as well as the events of last night following the closing of the vote – I deeply regret that this election was far from being...
04/08/2020 | Monitoring
The rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for the monitoring of Poland, Azadeh Rohjan Gustafsson (Sweden, SOC) and Pieter Omtzigt (Netherlands, EPP/CD), reacted today to the decision of the international chamber of the Amsterdam Court regarding the Polish justice...
03/08/2020 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
In August 2014, Daesh committed genocide against the Yazidi community in region of Sinjar in northern Iraq. Reportedly, Daesh killed 5000 Yazidi civilians and sold thousands more into slavery. Hundreds of thousands of Yazidis had to flee their homes. In its Resolution 2091 (2016) on “Foreign...
31/07/2020 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC), rapporteur of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) on reported cases of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, and Stefan Schennach (Austria, SOC) and Sir Roger Gale (United Kingdom, EC/DA), co-rapporteurs on monitoring of Azerbaijan, have today...
30/07/2020 | Monitoring
“We are deeply concerned about the information that financial investigations were launched by the Serbian Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering against over 50 prominent activists, NGOs and investigative media, including the 2019 PACE Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prizewinner “Youth...
29/07/2020 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
“Human trafficking is like a global pandemic,” said Pierre-Alain Fridez (Switzerland, SOC), Chairperson of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons, on the eve of the World Day against Trafficking in Human Beings held on 30 July. “None of us – neither governments, parliaments...