16/09/2011 | Monitoring
PACE co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Serbia, Davit Harutyunyan (Armenia, EDG) and Indrek Saar (Estonia, SOC), are to visit Belgrade from 19 to 22 September 2011 to assess different aspects of Serbia’s fulfilment of its obligations and commitments to the Council of Europe. The main topics for discussion include the latest political developments, reform of the judiciary and the situation of the media, as well as asylum-seekers, refugees and Roma.
16/09/2011 | Monitoring
PACE co-rapporteur for the monitoring of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Karin S. Woldseth (Norway, EDG), is to visit Sarajevo and Mostar from 19 to 23 September 2011 to assess different aspects of the country’s fulfillment of its obligations and commitments to the Council of Europe. The main topics for discussion include the formation of the State level government, implementation of the Sejdic and Finci judgment, and constitutional reform.
16/09/2011 | Monitoring
PACE co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Ukraine, Mailis Reps (Estonia, ALDE) and Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin (Sweden, EPP/CD), are to visit Kyiv and the Crimea from 19 to 23 September 2011 to assess different aspects of Ukraine’s fulfillment of its obligations and commitments to the Council of Europe. In Kyiv (20-21 September), the main topics for discussion include electoral reform and reform of the criminal justice system, criminal investigations into opposition representatives, and minority issues.
16/09/2011 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Adopting an opinion on the report on prenatal sex selection which is to be debated by the PACE on 4 October, the Social Affairs Committee pointed out that while, in theory, prenatal sex selection could also be used to prevent the birth of boys, it in fact serves essentially to prevent female births. As in the case of domestic violence, it is therefore necessary to address the main cause of prenatal sex selection, the inequality between women and men.
16/09/2011 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
"As stereotypes and prejudices against all that is different persist, as well as a desire to control these differences, or at least to control their propagation and reproduction, forced sterilisation and castration continue to this day in our member states," warned Liliane Maury Pasquier (Switzerland, SOC), Chair of the Social Affairs Committee, on the occasion of a hearing on this subject. The practice is reported to be directed mainly against Roma women, convicted sex offenders and transgender persons.
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.