08/09/2011 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
A major parliamentary hearing on the state of media freedom in Europe will take place on Monday 12 September at the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm, attended by around 90 government officials, parliamentarians and leading media professionals. The event is being organised jointly by the PACE Sub-committee on the Media and the Swedish Parliament.
08/09/2011 | Monitoring
“The outcome of the latest general amnesty in Armenia, the renewed impetus to investigate the 10 deaths during the March 2008 events, and the resulting start of a constructive dialogue between the opposition and ruling coalition mean that the chapter on the March 2008 events can finally be considered closed”, today said PACE Monitoring Committee.
07/09/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
The use of pre-natal sex selection in Europe will be the focus of the meeting which the PACE Committee on Equal Opportunities will be holding in Paris on 9 September 2011. Members of the committee will be considering a draft resolution based on the report by Doris Stump (Switzerland, SOC) which severely criticises pre-natal sex selection for non-medical reasons and puts forward a number of proposed measures for the countries concerned to deal with this practice.
07/09/2011 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
“The PACE inquiry into who is responsible for the more than 1,000 ‘boat people’ thought to have perished in the Mediterranean since January 2011 while trying to reach European soil from North Africa is meant to prevent impunity, PACE rapporteur Tineke Strik (Netherlands, SOC) has said at the end of a two-day visit to Rome (6 and 7 September 2011).
07/09/2011 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Secret services and intelligence agencies must be held accountable for human rights violations such as torture, abduction or renditions and not shielded from scrutiny by unjustified resort to the doctrine of “state secrets”, according to PACE Legal Affairs Committee.
07/09/2011 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
There is no need for a "trade-off" between protecting human rights and effective counter-terrorist action, according to PACE’s Committee on Legal Affairs, as safeguards exist in human rights law itself. Adopting a draft resolution based on a report by Lord John E. Tomlinson (United Kingdom, SOC), the committee reminded States Parties to the European Convention on Human Rights that they are duty-bound to secure within their jurisdiction the rights and freedoms guaranteed therein.
06/09/2011 | Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs
As part of the reform of the PACE, the Committee on Rules of Procedure adopted a package of measures to increase the Assembly's political relevance and effectiveness, make it more visible, rationalise its operational resources and improve the commitment and participation of its members.
06/09/2011 | President
In a speech before the Political Affairs Committee, meeting today in Caserta, Italy, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has underlined that the request for “Partner for Democracy” status with the Assembly, submitted by the Palestinian National Council, came as “a logical development” as the Assembly had been co-operating closely with Palestinian representatives for a number of years.
06/09/2011 | Political Affairs and Democracy
In a debate today in Caserta, Italy, on the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the Council of Europe, based on a report by Kerstin Lundgren (Sweden, ALDE), the Political Affairs Committee argued that the partnership between the EU and the Council of Europe should lead to a common space for human rights protection across the continent in the interest of all Europe's citizens.
06/09/2011 | Political Affairs and Democracy
On the basis of a report by Tiny Kox (Netherlands, UEL), the PACE Political Affairs Committee today gave the go-ahead for granting Partner for Democracy status to the Palestinian National Council. The Assembly is to take a decision on this matter at its October plenary session in Strasbourg.
05/09/2011 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights will be meeting in Paris on 7 September. Its agenda will include adoption of the report by Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE) on the abuse of state secrecy and national security, which places obstacles in the path of parliamentary and judicial scrutiny of human rights violations.
02/09/2011 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Tineke Strik (Netherlands, SOC), the rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) carrying out an inquiry into responsibility for loss of life in the Mediterranean Sea, in particular the death of "boat people" fleeing Libya, will make a fact-finding visit to Rome on 6 and 7 September 2011.