26/04/2013 | Session
The increasing complexity of science and technology calls for the creation of a permanent global body for ethical reflection, the Assembly said today. Such structure would make it possible to address ethical issues as a “moving target”, rather than fixing an “ethical code”...
26/04/2013 | Session
Nanotechnology – the manipulation of matter on an atomic and molecular scale – and its myriad applications have the potential for enormous benefits, in particular in the field of “nanomedicine”, but can also do serious harm, PACE has pointed out.
25/04/2013 | Session
The Assembly today decided to deprive Serhiy Vlasenko of his mandate and to ratify the credentials of Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine, EPP/CD). This decision follows the challenge to Mr Shevchenko’s still unratified credentials made last Monday by Pieter Omtzigt (Netherlands, EPP/CD), on procedural grounds...
25/04/2013 | Session
“Fleeing the conflict in Syria, 1.3 million people have found refuge in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. Given the enormous efforts of these countries to handle this situation, we must remind the international community of its duty of solidarity...", Pietro Marcenaro (Italy, SOC) said ...
25/04/2013 | Session
Antoni Martí, Head of Government of Andorra, today claimed that the most important challenge for his country today is moving towards a more open economy, based on cooperation, transparency and equality.
25/04/2013 | Session
“Never again”, Liliane Maury Pasquier (Switzerland, SOC) declared today when presenting her report on coerced sterilisations and castrations to the PACE Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development.
25/04/2013 | Monitoring
PACE Monitoring Committee has recommended that the Assembly should open a “monitoring procedure” in respect of Hungary, citing deep concerns at “the erosion of democratic checks and balances” as a result of the new constitutional framework in the country. In an opinion, the committee said there are “serious and sustained concerns” ...
25/04/2013 | Rules, Ethics and Immunities
In adopting a report by Pedro Agramunt, the PACE Committee on Rules of Procedure has proposed that monitoring and post-monitoring reports in future be presented to the Assembly at least once every three years.
25/04/2013 | Rules, Ethics and Immunities
The report by Rudy Salles on Assembly expenditure for 2014-2015, which was adopted by the Committee on Rules of Procedure, states that this organ will have to agree to reduce its expenditure for the next two years.
25/04/2013 | Session
“The picture of the human rights situation which I have observed during country visits, meetings with authorities and discussions with NGO representatives in 2012 is worrying” said today Nils Muižnieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights...
25/04/2013 | Session
Much more needs to be done in the spirit of international co-operation and burden-sharing by the EU and its member States to assist the countries beyond their eastern borders to deal with migratory pressures, according to PACE.
25/04/2013 | Session
Although the EU’s border agency FRONTEX has recently taken steps to deal more effectively with its human rights obligations, concerns remain that these may not be enough, the PACE has said in a resolution on the agency adopted today in Strasbourg.