15/03/2012 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE’s Political Affairs Committee has repeated its call to the Iraqi authorities to stop turning Camp Liberty – a site near Baghdad where around 800 members of an Iranian opposition group are now living – into a prison. In a statement adopted yesterday, the committee called for armed units and surveillance to be removed from the camp, as well as free movement for its residents and improved conditions, including access to medical services, lawyers and UN monitors.
15/03/2012 | Monitoring
Lise Christoffersen (Norway, SOC) and Piotr Wach (Poland, EPP/CD), PACE’s co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of the Republic of Moldova, have again urged the country’s political parties to elect a President without delay, and to seek consensus on any future constitutional changes to avoid future deadlock...
15/03/2012 | Monitoring
John Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC) and Axel Fischer (Germany, EPP/CD), PACE’s co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Armenia, have repeated their call for “a credible public inquiry” into the ten deaths that took place during the post-electoral events of March 2008...
13/03/2012 | President
PACE President Jean-Claude Mignon today held talks with the President of the UN General Assembly Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser during a meeting in Strasbourg. Referring to the crisis in Syria and the Arab Spring, the two Presidents underlined the need for stronger dialogue and co-operation between the UN and the Council of Europe, especially when it comes to dealing with international crises.
12/03/2012 | Monitoring
"The so-called parliamentary elections in Abkhazia, as well as the so-called presidential election that will take place on 25 March 2012 in Tskhinvali, cannot be recognised as legitimate," PACE's monitoring co-rapporteurs for Georgia, Michael Aastrup Jensen (Denmark, ALDE) and Kastriot Islami (Albania, SOC), have declared.
12/03/2012 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Restrictions on an individual’s movement – such as a visa ban or refusing entry to a country – should never be used as a sanction for holding “peacefully-held political opinions”, PACE’s Legal Affairs Committee has said in a draft resolution adopted today in Paris.
09/03/2012 | Standing Committee
PACE Standing Committee, meeting in Paris today, made the following statement on the situation in Syria: “The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is appalled by the deterioration of the situation in Syria, where more than 8,000 persons have been killed in the last 11 months as a direct result of actions by the Syrian autocratic leadership against a pro-democracy uprising..."
09/03/2012 | Standing Committee
PACE's Standing Committee today called on all the stakeholders of the EU Eastern Partnership to make the Council of Europe’s standard-setting, advisory and monitoring role – including the findings of the Council of Europe monitoring mechanisms and the PACE monitoring procedure – and its contribution to this process, more visible and duly acknowledge them.
09/03/2012 | Standing Committee
09/03/2012 | Standing Committee
The Council of Europe member states which have not yet done so should be invited to sign and ratify the UN Convention and those member states which have ratified the Convention should contribute actively to the functioning of this instrument, PACE said today. The member states should also consider launching the process of elaborating a European convention on this issue, based on and enhancing the achievements of the UN Convention.
09/03/2012 | Standing Committee
The member states of the Council of Europe should sign and ratify the Nairobi Convention, which provides a harmonised legal framework for dealing with the problem of wrecks, PACE said today. European governments should create a European database on wrecks, carry out systematic assessments of wrecks, support research in this area, and consider setting up a fund for old wrecks that pose a threat to the environment.
09/03/2012 | Standing Committee
In order to be credible and trustworthy, expert assessments in fields such as the environment, health, energy, finance or civil protection must be independent and impartial, PACE said today. According to the parliamentarians, it is therefore essential, among other measures, to instigate model rules, to impose the traceability of expert assessments and for them to operate in a collegial framework.