01/04/2011 | Session
A debate on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue, on Tuesday 12 April, will be one of the highlights of the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which will take place in Strasbourg from 11 to 15 April 2011. Several prominent religious figures will take the floor, including Patriarch Daniel of Romania, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, Vatican, Professor Mehmet Görmez, Chairperson of the Presidency of Religious Affairs of Turkey, Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, Chief Rabbi of Russia, and Prelate Bernhard Felmberg, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany to the Federal Republic of Germany and the EU.
01/04/2011 | Session
PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu today expressed his distress after 27 irregular migrants were found off the coast of Tunisia, drowned in the Mediterranean. “Each death of a boat person is one too many”, he deplored. “The events this year in Tunisia and Egypt and now in Libya have brought about a new wave of desperate people, using desperate means to find a new life”, he said.
31/03/2011 | President
“As politicians, we are very much concerned about some global economic developments which have consequences on human rights of our citizens,” said PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, addressing today the European banking and financial Forum “World Finances on the Threshold of the Asian Era" in Prague today, on the occasion of his working visit to the Czech Republic (30 March - 1 April).
31/03/2011 | President
During his working visit to the Czech Republic (30 March - 1 April), PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu underlined that the Czech Republic could make a significant contribution to the work of the Council of Europe, regarding the accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as the reform of the Council of Europe. Other issues raised included the situation of the Roma population, the situation in Belarus, recent developments in the Arab world as well as PACE’s new “Partnership for democracy” status.
30/03/2011 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
“The Council of Europe has been the pioneer in promoting the protection of the Roma and has been making efforts for a long time now to improve their situation,” stressed Annette Groth (Germany, UEL), who is currently preparing a report on "The Situation of Roma in Europe: movement and migration," at the opening ceremony of the Plenary Assembly of the European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF).
29/03/2011 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Following the request submitted by the Palestinian National Council for “Partner for democracy” status with the PACE, Tiny Kox (Netherlands, UEL), rapporteur on behalf of the the Political Affairs Committee, paid a fact-finding visit to the Palestinian Territories from 21 to 25 March 2011. At the end of the visit, the rapporteur met with President Abbas and invited him to come to Strasbourg.
29/03/2011 | Election observation
A five-member delegation of PACE, led by Yuliya Liovochkina (Ukraine, EDG), will be in Kazakhstan from 1 to 4 April to observe the early presidential election alongside observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the OSCE.
29/03/2011 | President
“The North-South Prize has a special meaning, which goes beyond being a simple reward. It is a symbol and a cause”, PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said today at the North-South Prize award ceremony in Lisbon. “It is a symbol of the one world in which we are all living, a world in which the North and the South, the East and the West, should be nothing more than geographical references”, he stressed.
25/03/2011 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will make a working visit to the Czech Republic from 30 March to 1 April 2011. His schedule includes meetings with the Prime Minister Petr Necas, the President of the Senate Milan Stech, the Vice-President of the Senate Alena Gajduskova, the President of the Chamber of Deputies Miroslava Nemcova, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Galuska, as well as the Mayor of Prague.
25/03/2011 | Monitoring
PACE’s Monitoring Committee today appointed Kerstin Lundgren (Sweden, ALDE) and Jana Fiszcherová (Czech Republic, EDG) as co-rapporteurs to prepare an opinion on the motion “Serious setbacks in the fields of the rule of law and human rights in Hungary” to be submitted to the Bureau of the Assembly.
25/03/2011 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has expressed serious concern that, almost six months after the 2010 general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, authorities have not been established at every level, stalling urgently-needed reforms.
25/03/2011 | Monitoring
Adopting a draft resolution on the honouring of obligations and commitments by Georgia, PACE Monitoring Committee today welcomed “the significant efforts” made by the authorities in honouring their remaining obligations and the “considerable progress” achieved since the last monitoring report adopted in 2008.