06/07/2011 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD), PACE rapporteur on the death penalty, today launched a last-ditch appeal to the Texan authorities to refrain from executing Humberto Leal García, a Mexican national, who was sentenced to death in 1995. His execution is currently scheduled for July 7 in Huntsville, Texas. “Mr. Leal was never informed about his right to request consular assistance, as he should have been under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations,” Ms Wohlwend stated.
05/07/2011 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE rapporteur on the situation in Belarus, Andres Herkel (Estonia, EPP/CD), has condemned the new wave of violence against peaceful protesters, journalists and human rights defenders in Belarus. “I am concerned about the rough dispersal of peaceful demonstrations in Minsk and other cities on July 3rd, Independence Day, with hundreds of protesters being brutally beaten and detained merely for clapping hands,” he said.
04/07/2011 | Monitoring
Kerstin Lundgren (Sweden, ALDE) and Jana Fischerová (Czech Republic, EDG), PACE co-rapporteurs who have been appointed to assess the request for the opening of a monitoring procedure in respect of Hungary, will make a fact-finding visit to the country from 6 to 8 July. A January 2011 motion, signed by 24 members of the Assembly, raised “serious concern” about recent developments in Hungary in four areas related to human rights, the rule of law and the functioning of democratic institutions.
01/07/2011 | Monitoring
Josette Durrieu (France, SOC), PACE rapporteur on the post-monitoring dialogue with Turkey, voiced her concern about the situation in the country following the refusal of 170 opposition MPs belonging to the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) to take the oath at the inaugural sitting of parliament.
30/06/2011 | President
The Organisation for Islamic Co-operation (OIC)and the Council of Europe have much in common, and must work together more closely to head off conflict and counter intolerance, PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has told foreign ministers from the 57-member Organisation for Islamic Co-operation. Addressing a meeting in Astana, as Kazakhstan takes over Chairmanship of the OIC, Mr Çavuşoğlu said working together was “an imperative of our time”.
29/06/2011 | Political Affairs and Democracy
“Europe cannot stand idly by and watch as history is made by this spectacular push for freedom in the countries of the southern Mediterranean,” said Jean-Charles Gardetto (Monaco, EPP), presenting his report on co-operation between the Council of Europe and the emerging democracies in the Arab world to the PACE’s Political Affairs Committee.He issued an urgent call for the creation of a “common democratic home”.
29/06/2011 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has proposed that Kazakhstan apply for “Partner for Democracy” status with the Assembly, one of several measures to step up relations with the Council of Europe. Mr Çavuşoğlu, who is attending the meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation for Islamic Co-operation (OIC) in Astana, made the proposal during a bilateral meeting on the margin of the conference with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
28/06/2011 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has welcomed the “encouraging democratic changes” there have been in Kyrgyzstan in the last year – and offered closer contacts to encourage further change. Speaking at the end of a two-day visit to the country (27-28 June 2011), during which he met the President, Speaker of Parliament, Prime Minister and other high officials, Mr Çavuşoğlu invited a delegation from the Kyrgyz Parliament to attend PACE’s October session.
24/06/2011 | Session
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has called on member states to investigate the possibility of lowering the voing age to 16 for all kinds of elections. The great majority of the Council of Europe’s 47 member states currently have 18 as the minimum voting age – though in 2007 Austria became the first to lower the age to 16 for all municipal, state and national elections.
24/06/2011 | Session
A Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) report approved today lists actions it expects from fourteen member states in order to meet their Council of Europe obligations and commitments, and provides a comparative analysis of how eleven others are doing according to assessments from different parts of the Organisation made over the last three years.
24/06/2011 | Session
In a recommendation adopted today on the basis of a report by Elvira Kovács (Serbia, EPP/CD), PACE asked the Committee of Ministers to instruct the relevant intergovernmental bodies "to study the possibility of drafting a framework convention on the rights of young people”, which would be based on ten principles.
24/06/2011 | Session
PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will visit Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan from 27 June to 2 July. In Bishkek on 27 and 28 June, he is due to meet the President of the Republic Roza Otunbaeva, the Speaker of Parliament Akhmatbek Keldibekov, the Prime Minister Almazbek Atambaev, the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Turatbek Djunushaliev, and the leaders of parliament’s political groups, as well as representatives of the Meskhetian Turks.