11/03/2013 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
What child protection strategies can be introduced at the national level to effectively fight sexual violence against children? This theme will be debated at the 12th meeting of the Network of Contact Parliamentarians to stop sexual violence against children on Thursday 14 March 2013 at the Bundestag in Berlin.
11/03/2013 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
In a hearing organised by the PACE Culture Committee in Paris on the right to Internet access, participants agreed today that accessing Internet has a significant impact on human rights. According to the PACE rapporteur on the subject, Jaana Pelkonen (EPP/CD), the prevailing opinion is that access to Internet is particularly central for freedom of expression...
11/03/2013 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
On Friday 15 March, PACE Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development will be holding a hearing on “Energy diversification as a fundamental contribution to sustainable development” at the Bundestag in Berlin.
11/03/2013 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
“Given that the Internet belongs to all the participants who make it up, it does not actually belong to anybody, which means that it cannot be controlled as such and could be regarded as an area of absolute freedom. However, this apparent total freedom can lead to excesses,” said Anne Brasseur (Luxembourg, ALDE)...
08/03/2013 | President
PACE President, Jean-Claude Mignon, is to make an official visit to Serbia from 11 to 13 March. On Tuesday 12 March he will meet the Speaker of the Serbian National Assembly Nebojša Stefanović and will address a special session of the National Assembly.
08/03/2013 | Standing Committee
PACE has called for more rigorous procedures – at both national and international level – for selecting experts who sit on the Council of Europe’s principal human rights monitoring mechanisms, such as its anti-torture and anti-racism bodies, or those dealing with social rights and national minorities.
08/03/2013 | Standing Committee
In a resolution adopted today by the Standing Committee meeting in Paris, the Assembly has made a series of practical recommendations to member States with a view to preserving Europe’s industrial heritage. To ensure that such protection is effective, the PACE has proposed that a European label for industrial heritage be developed.
08/03/2013 | Political Affairs and Democracy
The progress of reforms in Morocco and the state of the country’s co-operation with the Council of Europe will be the main focus of parliamentary hearings during a meeting of the PACE Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy in Rabat on Wednesday 13 March.
07/03/2013 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
“Internet and politics: the impact of new information and communication technology on democracy” is the theme of a hearing in Paris on Monday 11 March by the PACE Culture Committee. For Anne Brasseur (Luxembourg, ALDE), who is preparing a report on the subject, these paradigm shifts mean we have to analyse the structural impact of the Internet and the new social media on democracy.
07/03/2013 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
“I warmly welcome last night’s 27-20 vote by the Maryland Senate to repeal the death penalty,” said Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD), the PACE general rapporteur on abolition of the death penalty.
07/03/2013 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The PACE monitoring co-rapporteurs for Ukraine, Mailis Reps (Estonia, ALDE) and Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin (Sweden, EPP/CD), together with the Rapporteur on “Keeping political and criminal responsibility separate”, Pieter Omtzigt (Netherlands, EPP/CD), have jointly expressed their deep concern and disappointment at the revocation of the parliamentary mandate of Serhiy Vlasenko.
06/03/2013 | Monitoring
Following their visit to Budapest from 25 to 27 February 2013, PACE co-rapporteurs for the opinion on the opening of a monitoring procedure in respect of Hungary, Kerstin Lundgren (Sweden, ALDE) and Jana Fischerová (Czech Republic, EDG), have expressed their concern about the recently proposed amendments to the Hungarian Constitution (the so-called fourth amendment).