23/04/2013 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Politicians should be protected from criminal prosecution based on their political decisions, while being held to account for criminal acts or omissions – such as acting for personal gain or violating the fundamental rights of others – PACE’s Legal Affairs Committee has said.
23/04/2013 | Session
The Assembly called for committed legal action and policies to fight effectively against child sex tourism. Following the proposals by the rapporteur Valeriu Ghiletchi (Republic of Moldova, EPP/CD), the Assembly called on European governments to develop, implement and monitor mechanisms that will “prevent high-risk sex offenders from travelling abroad”...
23/04/2013 | Session
The Assembly believes it is possible to step up the effectiveness of the Council of Europe ONE in FIVE Campaign even further and today recommended that the Committee of Ministers allocate adequate financing from the ordinary budget of the Council of Europe to the three dimensions of the campaign...
23/04/2013 | Session
The Assembly today urged its member States to take concrete measures to end discrimination against Roma children. The adopted text, based on the on the proposals by the rapporteur (Nursuna Memecan, Turkey, ALDE), stresses that these efforts should be aimed at improving the material living conditions of Roma families...
22/04/2013 | Session
When adopting its final agenda at the opening of the Spring Session 2013, PACE decided to hold a current affairs debate on "Syrian refugees in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq: how to organise and support international assistance," on Thursday 25. The President of the Jordanian Parliament has been invited to address the Assembly in the framework of this debate...
22/04/2013 | Session
At the opening of its Spring plenary Session (22-26 April 2013), the Assembly today elected its Vice-Presidents with respect to Malta, Joseph Debono Grech ; Monaco, Jean-Charles Allavena ; and Romania, Ionuţ-Marian Stroe.
22/04/2013 | Session
The credentials of Ukrainian deputy Andriy Shevchenko, who was nominated to replace Sergiy Vlasenko on the Ukrainian parliamentary delegation, were challenged at the opening of PACE’s spring session today in Strasbourg.
22/04/2013 | Session
At the opening of the spring session of the PACE, the President, Jean-Claude Mignon, welcomed the unreserved support of the Czech Republic and of the Václav Havel Library and Charta 77 Foundation for the change in the name of the PACE Human Rights Prize to “Václav Havel Human Rights Prize”.
22/04/2013 | Session
The Council of Europe is "needed more than ever before", German President Joachim Gauck has told the Parliamentary Assembly. In spite of pressure to make savings in a time of austerity across Europe, "we should never seek to economise on human rights”, he said in an address.
22/04/2013 | Session
The Assembly decided today to grant the right to two representatives of the political forces elected to the Kosovo* Assembly, one representing the majority and one the opposition, to participate in PACE committee meetings (with the exception of the Monitoring Committee and the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs), regardless of the questions raised on the agenda.
22/04/2013 | Session
According to the Assembly, the presidential election held in Armenia on 18 February 2013 “was generally well-administered and was characterised by a respect for fundamental freedoms”, thus constituting an improvement over the previous presidential election in 2008.
22/04/2013 | Session
“Education, culture and youth correspond to the very essence of the Council’s role: democracy, rule of law and human rights are not established by decree”, highlighted Gilbert Saboya Sunyé, Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, while addressing PACE on Monday.