16/11/2011 | President
“Algeria plays a key role for stability and economic development in the Euro-Mediterranean region, today said PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu, at the end of a three-day visit to the country. “While I fully understand the Algerian wish to introduce reforms at their own pace and in accordance with the national realities and sensibility, and following the principle of sovereignty, many key issues require common responses and co-operation..."
16/11/2011 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
“The authority and effectiveness of the European Convention on Human Rights system is contingent on the political will and commitment of member states to provide the Council of Europe with appropriate financial means to implement its human rights mandate,” PACE rapporteur Marie-Louise Bemelmans-Videc (Netherlands, EPP/CD) said at a meeting of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights in Paris today.
15/11/2011 | Political Affairs and Democracy
In a statement adopted today at its meeting in Paris, the Political Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), calls on the Iraqi authorities to prevent humanitarian disaster and human rights violations at Camp Ashraf: “The Committee is concerned about the situation of the residents of Camp Ashraf (also referred to as Camp New Iraq), who are at risk of facing violent expulsion by the Iraqi security forces..."
15/11/2011 | Political Affairs and Democracy
The Political Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), meeting in Paris on 14-15 November 2011, today adopted the following statement: “On the first day of 2011 a suicide bombing in a Coptic church in Alexandria killed 21 persons and wounded 79. The Parliamentary Assembly condemned unequivocally such violence. We all hoped that, after the success of the Egyptian revolution, such tragedies would not be repeated..."
15/11/2011 | Political Affairs and Democracy
The Political Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), reaffirmed the universal nature of human rights, approving today in Paris a report by Denis Badré (France, ALDE) on the subject. According to the rapporteur, human rights can empower because they start with the individual: notably, the right to life, the principle of non-discrimination, the right to justice, a fair trial, protection against torture, the right to having an opinion, a faith.
15/11/2011 | Monitoring
PACE Monitoring co-rapporteurs for Georgia, Michael Aastrup Jensen (Denmark, ALDE) and Kastriot Islami (Albania, SOC) today underscored that they did not recognize the legitimacy of the elections that were recently conducted in South Ossetia and reiterated their support for the territorial integrity of Georgia."The unilateral declaration of independence of the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is illegitimate under international law and therefore no legal or constitutional basis for these elections exists" they declared.
14/11/2011 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Marie-Louise Bemelmans-Videc (Netherlands, EPP/CD), PACE rapporteur on guaranteeing the authority and effectiveness of the ECHR, will address a conference held in the context of the UK Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers entitled "2020 Vision for the European Court of Human Rights".
12/11/2011 | Election observation
A PACE delegation undertook a pre-election visit to Morocco to assess the campaign for the parliamentary elections due to take place on 25 November 2011. The delegation noted that the election campaign, which begins officially on 12 November, did not yet seem to have aroused much enthusiasm among the electorate, some two weeks before polling day. Some persons met by the delegation were concerned about the possibility of a low turn-out in the elections, as in 2007.
11/11/2011 | Election observation
More TV and radio debates, freer air-time and other campaigning possibilities for the seven parties participating in Russia’s parliamentary elections were cited as a significant change in the political process by most interlocutors who met the pre-electoral delegation of the PACE currently in Moscow. But the delegation was also told that major concerns remain about a level playing field in the election campaign.
10/11/2011 | President
“Election observation increases public confidence in the democratic process and the democratic institutions,” today stressed PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in St. Petersburg, on the occasion of the seminar on elections monitoring organised by the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS member nations. “The presence of trusted observers pressure on the protagonists of the political process to set up a proper framework and respect the rules,” he said.
10/11/2011 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu is making an official visit to Algeria on 13-16 November. He will hold talks with, in particular, the President of the National People’s Assembly, the Chairman of the Council of the Nation, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs. He will also meet the Chairman of the National Consultative Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.
07/11/2011 | Election observation
A PACE delegation will travel to Rabat for a pre-electoral visit from 9 to 12 November 2011 ahead of its observations of the parliamentary elections in Morocco on 25 November. The delegation, led by Tomáš Jirsa (Czech Republic, EDG), will meet the Speakers of the Assembly of Representatives and the Assembly of Councillors, the chairs of the parliamentary groups, the Secretary of State at the Ministry of the Interior in charge of election administration...