22/01/2025 | Election observation
Concluding its pre-electoral visit to Pristina, a delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) commended the good preparation for the upcoming elections to the Assembly of Kosovo despite growing polarisation and called on all stakeholders to act responsibly and...
21/01/2025 | Election observation
“The so-called presidential elections arranged in Belarus for 26 January 2025 are set to be a sham that, again, deny the right of the Belarusian people to participate in free and fair elections,” says PACE’s General Rapporteur for a Democratic Belarus, Ryszard Petru (Poland, ALDE). “The...
16/01/2025 | Monitoring
PACE's co-rapporteur for the monitoring of Azerbaijan, Lise Christoffersen (Norway, SOC), and the General Rapporteur for political prisoners, Thórhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC), have expressed deep concern at the recent sentencing of Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, a well-known Azerbaijani civil...
16/01/2025 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE’s rapporteur on the situation in the Middle East, Dora Bakoyannis (Greece, SOC), has welcomed the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. "The ceasefire agreement marks a crucial development in the ongoing efforts for peace in the region. This agreement, mediated by key international...
15/01/2025 | Prizes
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), in partnership with the Václav Havel Library and the Charta 77 Foundation, has issued a call for nominations for the 2025 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize. The Prize, created in 2013, aims to reward outstanding civil society action in...
13/01/2025 | Election observation
A three-member delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), led by Petra Bayr (Austria, SOC), will make a pre-electoral visit to Kosovo* on 16-17 January to assess the election campaign and political climate prior to the elections to the Assembly of Kosovo on 9...
10/01/2025 | Monitoring
As part of the ongoing monitoring procedure of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the co-rapporteurs for Georgia, Claude Kern (France, ALDE) and Edite Estrela (Portugal, SOC), will carry out a fact-finding mission to Tbilisi from 14 to 16 January 2025. The aim of the...
31/12/2024 | President
As we approach the end of 2024, the time has come not only to look back at our achievements but also to look forward to what awaits us in the future. This year we marked the 75th anniversary of the Council of Europe with several events organised in the parliaments of our member states. Marking...
23/12/2024 | Monitoring
PACE’s Rapporteur for the monitoring of Serbia, Axel Schäfer (Germany, SOC), has today expressed his concern at recent revelations about the surveillance of Serbian journalists and activists. "I am deeply dismayed at recent findings by Amnesty International and the Balkan Investigative Reporting...
20/12/2024 | Secretary General of the Assembly
PACE Secretary General Despina Chatzivassiliou travelled to Crete on 18 December to take part in a two-day event to promote human rights as part of the Region of Crete's new campaign "Equality4Crete - do the right thing!" Around 60 schools, including secondary schools, took part in the event...
19/12/2024 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
The Chairperson of the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced persons, Oleksii Goncharenko (Ukraine, EC/DA), today made the following statement: “As the death toll rises following the devastation caused by Cyclone Chido in the French department of Mayotte on Saturday 14 December, I...
17/12/2024 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
On the occasion of International Migrants Day, dedicated to “Honouring the contributions of migrants and respecting their rights”, the Chair of the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced persons Oleksii Goncharenko (Ukraine, EC/DA) made the following statement: "International...