23/06/2011 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
PACE has launched an 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. Following a request for an inquiry signed by 34 members of the Assembly, PACE’s Migration Committee today appointed Tineke Strik (Netherlands, SOC) to prepare a report on “Lives lost in the Mediterranean sea: who is responsible?”.
23/06/2011 | Prizes
At the end of a special debate on the state of human rights in Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today presented its 2011 Human Rights Prize to the Russian NGO “Committee against Torture” (Komitet Protiv Pytok), in recognition of the organisation’s key role in assisting victims of serious human rights abuses.
23/06/2011 | Session
PACE today set out in detail what national parliaments of Council of Europe member states can do to ensure compliance with international human rights standards. Approving a report by Christos Pourgourides (Cyprus, EPP/CD), the Assembly said parliaments should set up committees to check draft laws for their “human rights compatibility”, propose new laws where needed and monitor governments’ compliance with international standards – especially judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.
23/06/2011 | Session
“Within our legacy there are lessons to be learnt” said Robert Walter (United KIngdom, EDG) in Strasbourg today, opening a current affairs debate on the political and humanitarian consequences of the situation in Syria and Libya.
23/06/2011 | Session
The European Union's forthcoming accession to the European Convention on Human Rights fills an important gap in Europe's human rights protection system, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, Germany's Minister of Justice, has told the Parliamentary Assembly.
23/06/2011 | Session
UK Attorney General Dominic Grieve today affirmed that the UK government will use its upcoming chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers from November this year to pursue reforms in the Council of Europe and Court of Human Rights.
23/06/2011 | Session
According to PACE, the experience of quotas could be advantageously transposed to the private and socio-economic sectors to improve the representation of women in decision-making bodies. In this connection, the Assembly proposed in a resolution adopted today that member states “introduce the obligation for state-owned and large private companies to guarantee a minimum 40% of representation of women on their governing and management boards”.
22/06/2011 | Session
The PACE Political Affairs Committee appointed on 21 June, Andres Herkel (Estonia, EPP/CD), as rapporteur on the situation in Belarus, replacing Sinikka Hurskainen (Finland, SOC).
22/06/2011 | Prizes
The President of the PACE Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs, Dimitrios Papadimoulis (Greece, UEL), and the Chairman of the Sub-Committee on the Europe Prize, Axel Fischer (Germany, EPP/CD), awarded today mayors of 18 prize-winning municipalities with the European Diploma 2011, on the occasion of a ceremony attended by some 100 participants.
22/06/2011 | Session
"Armenia has been drawing closer to Europe in a unique and natural way for two decades, during which the Council of Europe has been a key partner in the process of establishing and strengthening democracy", the President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, has told the Parliamentary Assembly.
22/06/2011 | Session
Addressing the Parliamentary Assembly, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov referred to the “winds of change” in the southern neighborhood of Europe, stressing that Europe must share its democratic transition experience. This is why Bulgaria organised last May in its capital the Sofia Platform, a conference in which took part governmental and non-governmental representatives from Arab countries, Europe and the US.
22/06/2011 | Session
“Preparing for a sexual offence against a child is a serious crime, particularly when the preparation has gone so far that the offender has scheduled a meeting with the child and the purpose of the meeting is that the offender will abuse the child sexually,” Ulrika Rogland, public prosecutor in Malmö (Sweden) said today in Strasbourg on the occasion of the 3rd meeting of the Network of Contact Parliamentarians to stop sexual violence against children.