01/12/2020 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Children joined experts at a PACE parliamentary hearing to demand urgent action on climate change from European governments – and to argue that continued inaction would be a violation of their right to a healthy environment. The virtual joint hearing, organised by PACE’s Committee on Social...
17/11/2020 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Joint statement by Baroness Doreen E. Massey (United Kingdom, SOC), PACE Rapporteur on “Addressing sexual violence against children: stepping up action and co-operation in Europe”, and Dimitri Houbron (France, ALDE), PACE Rapporteur on “For an assessment of the means and provisions to combat...
12/11/2020 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
“Widespread sharing of sexual images and videos produced by children themselves has become a challenge that we must urgently address, especially as the risks of sexual exploitation and abuse have increased in the context of the lockdown and resulting isolation of children,” said Dimitri Houbron...
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...
09/10/2020 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
Béatrice Fresko-Rolfo (Monaco, ALDE), PACE’s General Rapporteur on Violence against Women, and Baroness Doreen Massey (United Kingdom, SOC), rapporteur on addressing sexual violence against children, issued the following statement to mark the International Day of the Girl Child, 11 October: “25...
22/09/2020 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
“The world of work will be increasingly exposed to the spread of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, with the particular risk that AI replaces humans in more jobs than it creates new ones,” said the Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development Committee, meeting today by...
22/09/2020 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE’s Social Affairs 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...
22/09/2020 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
“There is a wide variety of chronic and long-term illnesses – such as Lyme disease, Crohn's disease, or Charcot's disease – which cause physical disorders that are often disabling, impacting on society's perception of patients and preventing them from fully enjoying their rights and excluding...
22/09/2020 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE Social Affairs Committee has said it deplores the complacency of both countries of origin and destination concerning children who are “left behind” when their parents migrate abroad for work, potentially depriving them of support and protection. “Leaving millions of children without parental...
18/09/2020 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
“Today we mark the first ever International Equal Pay Day, a welcome UN initiative. Although the gender pay gap is now smaller than it has ever been, we still have a long way to go,” said Selin Sayek Böke (Turkey, SOC), PACE’s rapporteur on socio-economic inequalities. “The pay gap exacerbates...
07/07/2020 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Climate change caused by human activity is “already well present” in Europe, driving extreme heat waves, droughts, heavy precipitation, floods and rising sea-levels, and is set to get worse in the decades to come, PACE parliamentarians were warned this week. Speaking at a virtual public hearing...
18/06/2020 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Participants at a PACE online webinar today looked at lessons from the COVID-19 crisis on child safeguarding and protection, concluding that the pandemic had had a “devastating” impact on children’s mental health, with a special impact on young people unable to take part in sport. The event...