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Death row
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"There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights", says PACE General Rapporteur

09/10/2022 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights

On the occasion of the World Day against the Death Penalty (10 October), PACE General Rapporteur on the abolition of the death penalty Vladimir Vardanyan (Armenia, EPP/CD) made the following statement: "In this year’s World Day against the Death Penalty, we focus on capital punishment and the...

Vaccine / COVID

The use of Covid passes may lead to discrimination, says committee

13/09/2022 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights

The compulsory use of Covid passes, in particular vaccine passes – aimed at restricting travelling and access to certain public venues – entails risks of discrimination and infringements of human rights and fundamental freedoms, according to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights. The...

Covid / 19 / Covid19 / Coronavirus / Pandemic
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Covid restrictions shouldn’t be used to hinder civil society, says PACE committee

12/09/2022 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights

Laws aimed at combating Covid “might be used to further restrict the rights and fundamental freedoms of civil society actors”, PACE’s Legal Affairs Committee has warned. Approving a report by Margreet De Boer (Netherlands, SOC), the committee said Covid restrictions had had a “deleterious effect...

Bern, Switzerland

Aggression against Ukraine, populist excesses and the Covid-19 pandemic: the Council’s values threatened on...

06/09/2022 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights

The PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights held its meeting in Bern and Neuchâtel (Switzerland) on 5 and 6 September 2022. In particular, it discussed the report of its ad hoc sub-committee which visited Kyiv, Bucha and Irpin at the end of June, and decided to declassify this document...

PACE delegation during its visit to Kyiv

PACE delegation, ending Kyiv visit: ‘The worst crime of all is the war itself'

29/06/2022 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights

A cross-party delegation of ten members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE),* ending a visit to Kyiv on Ukraine’s Constitution Day (28 June 2022), has expressed shock at the level of evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity it saw, denounced the war in the...

Boriss / Cilevics

Boriss Cilevičs’ follow-up report on the implementation of PACE Resolution 2381 declassified

21/06/2022 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights

The PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights today declassified a follow-up report prepared by Boriss Cilevičs (Latvia, SOC) on the implementation of PACE Resolution 2381 - "Should politicians be prosecuted for statements made in the exercise of their mandate?". According to the...

Sunna / Aeversdottir / Iceland

Legal Affairs Committee calls on Russia to release 447 political prisoners

24/05/2022 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights

The Legal Affairs Committee is “appalled” by the large and growing number of political prisoners in the Russian Federation and the “pattern of systematic repression” against any and all opponents of the current authorities. The European Court of Human Rights has delivered multiple judgments in...

MH17
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Flight MH17 shot down by a Russian-supplied Buk missile ‘most convincing scenario by far’, says PACE committee

24/05/2022 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights

PACE’s Legal Affairs Committee has said that, based on the evidence made available to its rapporteur by Ukrainian and Dutch authorities, it considers “as the most convincing scenario by far” that flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine in 2014 by a Buk missile made available to pro-Russian...

Frank / Schwabe / Germany

Widespread fear and impunity characterise the ‘dismal human rights situation’ in the North Caucasus

24/05/2022 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights

The Legal Affairs Committee yesterday deplored the "dismal human rights situation” in the North Caucasus, where widespread fear and impunity of agents of the regional and federal authorities for serious human rights violations continue to prevail. None of the recommendations contained in the...

Vladimir Kara-Murza

Committee Chair calls for immediate release of Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza

27/04/2022 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights

Damien Cottier (Switzerland, ALDE), the Chairperson of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), has made the following statement: “I strongly condemn the arbitrary arrest of Vladimir Kara-Murza, a well-known Russian opposition...

Sunna / Aeversdottir / Iceland

General Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders reacts to the sentence of Vladimir Kara-Murza

14/04/2022 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights

PACE's General Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, and rapporteur on political prisoners in Russia, Sunna Ævarsdóttir, (Iceland, SOC), today reacted to the sentence of Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian historian and opposition politician, to 15 days administrative detention for...

Demonstration - Police officers
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Preventing and fighting excessive use of force by the police

05/04/2022 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights

The Legal Affairs Committee, meeting in Paris, denounced the frequent excessive use of force by law enforcement officers in member States, “violating the principles of necessity, proportionality, precaution, and non-discrimination", notably in policing peaceful demonstrations, in handling...