16/09/2011 | Election observation
A PACE delegation has made a pre-electoral visit to Tunis to evaluate the electoral campaign prior to elections to Tunisia's National Constituent Assembly on 23 October 2011. The pre-electoral delegation notes with satisfaction that the Tunisian authorities have swiftly devised a legal framework for organising pluralist elections and, in this respect, it encourages them to step up co-operation with the Council of Europe's Venice Commission...
15/09/2011 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Internal displacement and its consequences, including housing issues, should be systematically included in the monitoring activities of the relevant bodies of the Council of Europe, experts participating in an exchange of views on the situation of IDPs and returnees in the North Caucasus, organised by the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population in Paris on 13 September, agreed.
14/09/2011 | Monitoring
“We welcome the return of the opposition to the parliament. It is now very important that all political parties constructively work in the legislative process and adopt the reforms that are needed for Albania, including for it to start the accession negotiations with the EU”, according to Tomáš Jirsa (Czech Republic, EDG) and Grigore Petrenco (Moldova, UEL), co-rapporteurs of PACE Monitoring Committee for Albania say in an information note made public today.
13/09/2011 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
A victim of forced sterilisation is due to testify before a parliamentary hearing on putting an end to coercive sterilisations and castrations on Friday 16 September from 2 to 4 p.m. in Paris. The hearing, organised by PACE Committee on Social, Health and Family Affairs, will focus in particular on coercive sterilisations of Romani women, convicted sex offenders and transgender persons. Czech, Swedish and British experts are due to take part.
13/09/2011 | Political Affairs and Democracy
"The celebration of the International Day of Democracy takes on a very special meaning this year at a time when movements of popular protest have broken out in the Arab world, bringing changes both spectacular and unexpected. The protagonists of the “Arab Spring”, who have forged rapid links via social networks and the Internet, want democratic change founded on trust and transparency: they aspire to dignity, freedom, social justice and respect for human rights in a law-based state, declared PACE Bureau on the occasion of the International Day of Democracy.
13/09/2011 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
“Undocumented migrant children are triply vulnerable, as migrants, as persons in an undocumented situation, and as children. A child should not be discriminated against because of his or her status. A child is first, foremost and only, a child. The issue of migratory status can only ever be a secondary consideration,” Pedro Agramunt (Spain, EPP/CD) said today when presenting his report on undocumented migrant children in an irregular situation at a meeting of the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population in Paris.
12/09/2011 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
“We are very concerned by threats to media freedom in Ukraine, which chairs the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers at a time of severe national political challenges," said Mats Johansson, the Standing Rapporteur for Media Freedom of PACE's Committee on Culture, Science and Education, and Arne König, President of the European Federation of Journalists, who are both attending a PACE hearing in Stockholm on the state of media freedom in Europe.
09/09/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
PACE’s Committee for Equal Opportunities today expressed its preoccupation at the negative impact of violent and extreme pornography on women’s dignity and right to live free from sexual violence. Adopting a draft resolution based on a report by Michał Stuligrosz (Poland, EPP/CD), the committee recalled that this type of pornography “further erodes the conditions for achieving effective gender equality”.
09/09/2011 | President
“After showing some signs of relief during the past year, the economic and financial crisis is deepening again in Europe. We all know too well from tragic past experience that when the cake becomes smaller and smaller and there is not enough for everybody, it becomes increasingly difficult to ensure that the rules of the game are the same for everybody. Discrimination is therefore a real threat to our societies,” today said PACE President Mevlüt Cavusoglu addressing the Assembly’s Committee on Equal Opportunities during its meeting in Paris.
09/09/2011 | Election observation
A five-member, cross-party delegation of observers from PACE is to make a “pre-electoral” visit to Tunisia on 15-16 September, to assess the electoral framework and campaign ahead of the 23 October elections for a Constituent National Assembly.
09/09/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
PACE Committee on Equal Opportunities today warned that pre-natal sex selection has reached “worrying proportions” in several Council of Europe member states, in particular Albania, Armenia and Azerbaijan where the ratio is 112 boys for 100 girls, and in Georgia where the ratio is 111 boys for 100 girls. In adopting a draft resolution based on the report by Doris Stump (Switzerland, SOC), the Committee calls on these four countries to “investigate the causes and reasons behind skewed sex ratios at birth” and to step up their efforts to “raise the status of women in society”.
08/09/2011 | President
"On this day of the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks we first and foremost pay tribute to the victims and their families, declared Thorbjørn Jagland, Kostyantyn Gryshchenko and Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. "This tragic date of mourning should serve as a reminder that terrorism has no ideology, no nationality and no religion. Terrorism in all its forms is a violation of the most fundamental human right: the right to life. Regardless of where, by whom and against whom terrorist offences are perpetrated, these crimes affect us all and target humanity as a whole," they added.