22/05/2020 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“The Hungarian Parliament’s enactment this week of a law designed to prevent trans and intersex people from obtaining legal recognition of their gender identity is a flagrant breach of human rights,” declared PACE General Rapporteur on the rights of LGBTI people, Fourat Ben Chikha (Belgium, SOC...
20/05/2020 | Prizes
The Sub-Committee on the Europe Prize decided on 19 May 2020 to award 8 Plaques of Honour (to municipalities in France, Germany, Italy, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine), 6 Flags of Honour (to municipalities in Germany, Poland, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine) and 12 European Diplomas (to municipalities in...
20/05/2020 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
“The member States' health systems will have to strive to adapt in order to be able to better cope in the future with a health emergency such as COVID-19, while respecting fundamental rights and freedoms,” said Andrej Hunko (Germany, UEL) who was appointed yesterday as rapporteur on the lessons...
19/05/2020 | Monitoring
“The Armenian authorities have decided to request the opinion of the Venice Commission – the Council of Europe’s body of legal experts – on possible changes to the Constitution regarding the Constitutional Court and this is very good news,” said the co-rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of...
19/05/2020 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE Committee on Social Affairs has called on Council of Europe member States “to make addressing sexual violence against children a political priority, to make full use of the available resources and to step up their action and increase co-operation”.During a virtual meeting held today, the...
18/05/2020 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
With COVID-19 raising fears of increased surveillance, PACE’s rapporteur on Artificial Intelligence in healthcare, Selin Sayek Böke (Turkey, SOC), has issued a strong call for a new framework to regulate AI in this area, urging “a new era of citizen empowerment” for health data which will protect...
18/05/2020 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
The negative impact on sexual and reproductive health and rights of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as innovative solutions to cope with the crisis, were the focus of a parliamentary webinar streamed live via Facebook on 19 May 2020 at 16h CEST.Organised by PACE’s Committee on Equality and Non...
15/05/2020 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
In the context of the COVID-19 epidemic which has spread to all continents –resulting in more than 4 million cases of infection and 280,000 deaths worldwide to date – what conclusive lessons can be drawn and used in the event of future health crises, while giving priority to human rights? The...
15/05/2020 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
Council of Europe member States must adopt “relevant laws and sanctions to uphold the integrity of sports competitions against manipulation”, according to PACE‘s Culture Committee. This type of ‘organised crime’ can “only be tackled effectively through a common political commitment and legally...
15/05/2020 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
As nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and the cognitive sciences converge, a PACE committee has called for “a new culture of public dialogue” on scientific advances to ensure that new technologies respect human rights. The committee makes reference to existing tools, such as...
15/05/2020 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown into sharp relief the inequalities existing in our societies, and marginalised still further those who were already most at risk. Many LGBTI people already faced discrimination in access to employment, housing and adequate health care, and the last few weeks have...
14/05/2020 | Monitoring
The PACE rapporteurs for the monitoring of Azerbaijan, Stefan Schennach (Austria, SOC) and Sir Roger Gale (United Kingdom, EC/DA), have expressed their concern at the crackdown on critics of the authorities under the guise of combating the Coronavirus pandemic, as well as the safety of prisoners...