07/10/2011 | News
In a report declassified today, a PACE ad hoc committee retraces the events of 19 December 2010, following the presidential election in Belarus, which gave rise to violent repression of a protest movement and led to the arrest of 600 people.
07/10/2011 | Bureau
The PACE Bureau called today, in a declaration, for a decision at the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Durban, 29 November-9 December 2011) to stop the clock ticking towards the end of the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol in order to allow negotiations for a successor regime to continue if necessary beyond that date.
06/10/2011 | Session
“The hour of the Palestinian spring is here,” declared the President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas, addressing the Assembly today. Mr Abbas said that in the light of the stalemate in negotiations, the “only alternative” for Palestinians was to turn to the international community to open new horizons for the peace process, through UN recognition of the state of Palestine on the basis of the 1967 borders.
06/10/2011 | Session
Unjustified resort to the doctrine of “state secrets” is too often shielding secret services and intelligence agencies from scrutiny of involvement in human rights violations such as torture, abduction or renditions, PACE has said. In a resolution adopted today, based on a report by Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE), the Assembly said information on responsibility for such violations should not be considered as state secrets worthy of protection.
06/10/2011 | Session
“Europe needs a truly pan-European co-ordination mechanism, supported at the highest political level by all Council of Europe member states,” said PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Strasbourg today, opening a current affairs debate on how Council of Europe member states can come to the aid of countries touched by humanitarian catastrophes such as those in East Africa.
06/10/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
A former TV news presenter who was stalked three times in a 15-year career has told Council of Europe parliamentarians of “a devastating crime that, beginning often with small, incremental, steps, utterly destroys lives”.
06/10/2011 | Session
There is no need for a "trade-off" between protecting human rights and effective counter-terrorist action, according to PACE, as safeguards exist in human rights law itself. Adopting a resolution based on a report by Lord John E. Tomlinson (United Kingdom, SOC), the Assembly reminded States Parties to the ECHR that they are duty-bound to secure within their jurisdiction, including for individuals or regions under their effective control but outside their ordinary territory, the rights and freedoms guaranteed therein.
06/10/2011 | Session
Despite an overall positive assessment of the situation in the Balkans, the recent upsurge of tension and political impasse in some parts of the region give rise to concern, PACE said today. Following an urgent debate, based on a report by Björn von Sydow (Sweden, SOC), the Assembly listed a series of steps to reduce the growing tension in North Kosovo, end the political stalemate in Bosnia and Herzegovina and improve the situation in Albania.
05/10/2011 | Session
“Child pornography is a crime and a grave violation of the rights of the child,” the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography emphasised in her address to the Parliamentary Assembly.
05/10/2011 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE Political Affairs Committee today backed the intention of the Rapporteur for Belarus, Andres Herkel (Estonia, EPP/CD), to make a fact-finding visit to Minsk in the coming months in order to have the opportunity to meet not only with the authorities but also with political prisoners, including former Presidential candidates and Ales Bialiatski, President of the Human Rights Centre Viasna, following reports of physical and psychological ill treatment.
05/10/2011 | Session
“Crimes committed by travelling sex offenders are among the worst forms of violence against children, because they reduce them to mere objects of abusive desires and commercial interests,” said Liliane Maury Pasquier (Switzerland,, SOC), Chair of the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee, speaking today at the 4th meeting of the network of contact parliamentarians to stop sexual violence against children.
05/10/2011 | Session
“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 for the Assembly, whilst its monitoring of Armenia’s human rights and democracy obligations, including with respect of the investigation into the ten causalities, will continue unabated”, PACE said today.