13/04/2011 | Session
Given the increase in obesity and type 2 diabetes affecting children and young people, the Assembly today appealed to European governments to “respond urgently to this public health crisis”. The text adopted on the basis of proposals by Mike Hancock (United Kingdom, ALDE) advocates measures to promote healthy eating habits, healthy lifestyles and a healthy environment. The participation of children and young people in the design of public health programmes intended for them is “an important condition for their successful implementation”.
12/04/2011 | Session
At the opening of this morning’s sitting, members of the Assembly stood for a minute of silence in memory of the victims of yesterday’s terrorist attack in Minsk. PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu declared: “On behalf of the Assembly, I would like to condemn most strongly what appears to be a terrorist act which happened yesterday evening in the Minsk Underground..."
12/04/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women will change the lives of many dozens of millions of women who are victims of violence, helping them find protection, assistance and justice,” said José Mendes Bota (Portugal, EPP/CD), Chairperson of the PACE Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, hailing the adoption of the Convention by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers last week.
12/04/2011 | Session
Following a debate which brought together leading religious figures from across Europe, PACE has called for “a new culture of living together” based on the assertion of everyone’s equal dignity and adherence to the Council of Europe’s basic principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Adopting a recommendation based on a report by Anne Brasseur (Luxembourg, ALDE) on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue, the parliamentarians called on Europe’s governments to set up a new “platform for dialogue”.
12/04/2011 | Session
The human rights situation in Belarus has “not improved” since January 2011, on the contrary, and therefore there can be “no progress” in relations between the Assembly and Belarus, according to PACE’s rapporteur on Belarus Sinikka Hurskainen (Finland, SOC).
12/04/2011 | Monitoring
Karin Woldseth (Norway, EDG) and Jean-Claude Mignon (France, EPP/CD), PACE co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Bosnia and Herzegovina, today made the following statement: “We deeply regret that more than six months after the general elections of 3 October 2010, the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been unable to appoint a new delegation to the PACE.”
12/04/2011 | Monitoring
In an information note on their visit to Baku from 1 to 3 February 2011, published in Strasbourg today, Pedro Agramunt Font de Mora (Spain, EPP/CD) and Joseph Debono Grech (Malta, SOC), co-rapporteurs of the Monitoring Committee on Azerbaijan, said that they particularly valued the openness of the Azerbaijani authorities to political dialogue with the PACE.
12/04/2011 | Session
PACE, meeting this week in plenary session in Strasbourg, today elected Helen Keller as judge to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) with respect to Switzerland. Ms Keller, having obtained an absolute majority of votes cast, is elected a judge of the European Court of Human Rights for a term of office of 9 years starting on 4 October 2011.
12/04/2011 | Session
PACE, meeting this week in plenary session in Strasbourg, today elected Erik Møse as judge to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) with respect to Norway. Mr Møse, having obtained an absolute majority of votes cast, is elected a judge of the European Court of Human Rights for a term of office of 9 years starting on 1 September 2011.
12/04/2011 | Session
In a resolution adopted today, on the basis of a report by Luca Volontè (Italy, EPP/CD), the PACE called on member states to base their poverty reduction strategies on human rights by ensuring, in particular, that people and communities who experience poverty have access to not only social rights but also civil, political, economic and cultural rights.
11/04/2011 | Session
Adopting the final agenda of its plenary Spring Session, the Assembly today decided to hold, on Thursday 14 April, an urgent debate on the large-scale arrival of irregular migrants, asylum seekers and refugees on Europe's southern shores and a current affairs debate on the situation in Northern Africa. The parliamentarians noted that Steingrímur Sigfússon, Minister of Finance of Iceland, will not intervene in the debate on over-indebtedness of states scheduled for this afternoon.
11/04/2011 | Session
“The current revolutions in the Arab world are a powerful proof that the values which the Council of Europe defends and promotes – human dignity, human rights, democracy and the rule of law – are universal. These values can empower even the weakest and most oppressed people and can defeat even the strongest dictatorships,” PACE President Mevlüt Cavusoglu said today in his opening speech of the PACE spring session in Strasbourg.