23/04/2012 | Political Affairs and Democracy
"The Parliament of Morocco was the first to seek and to be granted Partner for Democracy status. It therefore played a pioneering role in this field and paved the way for others. The Parliament must continue to assume this difficult but honourable role, ensuring that the political commitments and the reforms covered by Resolution 1818 (2011) are implemented in an exemplary way", Luca Volontè said at the end of his visit.
19/04/2012 | Elections
A PACE pre-electoral delegation visited Belgrade to assess the preparation of the elections and the election campaign on the eve of the parliamentary and early presidential elections of 6 May 2012. The delegation welcomed the smooth preparation of the elections, which will mark an important moment for the country, as it will elect at the same time its representatives at presidential, parliamentary, provincial and local level.
17/04/2012 | President
States must first and foremost guarantee the effective protection of human rights at national level, PACE President Jean-Claude Mignon has told ministers and state representatives at the opening of the high-level conference on reform of the European Court of Human Rights in Brighton.
16/04/2012 | President
PACE President Jean-Claude Mignon today welcomed the release of Belarusian opposition leader Andrei Sannikov and his former campaign aide Dzmitry Bandarenka, while urging President Lukashenko “to release and fully rehabilitate all other remaining political prisoners”. “At its January 2012 Session, our Assembly deplored that a number of individuals, including former presidential candidates, civil society activists and prominent human rights defenders, remain in prison on political grounds”, the President said.
13/04/2012 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Luca Volontè (Italy, EPP/CD), rapporteur of the PACE Political Affairs Committee on the “Evaluation of the Partnership for Democracy in respect of the Parliament of Morocco”, will make a fact-finding visit to Rabat on 17 and 18 April. On 21 June 2011, the Parliament of Morocco was the first to benefit from Partner for Democracy status with PACE, established in 2010 to strengthen institutional co-operation with the parliaments of non-member states in neighbouring regions.
13/04/2012 | Elections
A four-member PACE delegation, led by Jean-Charles Gardetto (Monaco, EPP/CD), will carry out a pre-electoral visit to Belgrade on 17-18 April 2012, ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections in Serbia on 6 May 2012, to assess the electoral framework and campaign. The delegation is due to meet the Speaker of Parliament, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, the President of the Electoral Commission, the head of the national broadcasting agency and representatives of the main parliamentary caucuses.
13/04/2012 | Elections
A PACE delegation, ending a three-day post-electoral visit to Moscow, has welcomed recent political initiatives to improve the electoral process in the Russian Federation to increase citizens' trust in the electoral process and its outcome. Electoral reform should be substantial and sustainable and be accompanied by broad political dialogue between government, parliament, non-parliamentary parties and civil society to increase public confidence. The presidential elections of March 4 had a clear winner but the electoral process lacked broad citizens’ trust.
13/04/2012 | Monitoring
PACE co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Ukraine, Mailis Reps (Estonia, ALDE) and Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin (Sweden, EPP/CD), have welcomed the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada yesterday of the new Code of Criminal Procedure for Ukraine. Given the extraordinarily large number of amendments that were tabled to the original draft, the co-rapporteurs especially welcomed the pledge of the President of Ukraine that he will only sign this code into law after having received assurances from the Council of Europe that it is fully in line with European standards and norms.
12/04/2012 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD), PACE former rapporteur on abolition of the death penalty in the organisation’s member and observer states, today congratulated the people of Connecticut on the abolition of the death penalty in their State: “I admire the humility of Connecticut Senate President Donald E. Williams Jr. who said that ‘in a system of justice that is not perfect, we must not employ a penalty that requires perfection’..."
12/04/2012 | Session
The effects of the Arab Spring will be a major theme of the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), to be held in Strasbourg from 23 to 27 April 2012. There will be an address by the Foreign Minister of Morocco and a debate on “Equality between women and men: a condition for the success of the Arab Spring” attended by Morocco's minister responsible for womens’ issues. There has also been a request for an urgent debate on the situation in Syria
12/04/2012 | Elections
Armenia on the eve of its parliamentary election has a competitive electoral environment in an improved legal framework, provided by its new Electoral Code, warmly welcomed a PACE pre-electoral delegation visiting Yerevan on 11 and 12 April 2012. It is important that the Electoral Code is fully implemented and in good faith. The delegation took careful note of strong concerns of the possibility of double-voting, perhaps as a result of the inclusion on the voters’ list of Armenian citizens living abroad.
11/04/2012 | President
PACE President, Jean-Claude Mignon, today expressed his consternation at the execution of three sentenced persons by the authorities in Gaza. “By this barbaric and ignoble act, the authorities in Gaza have deliberately chosen alienation from the values that the Council of Europe stands for. Recourse to capital punishment anywhere is quite simply unjustifiable.”