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 | 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 | 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.
11/04/2011 | Prizes
PACE today decided to award 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. This is the second time the 10,000-euro biennial Prize, which honours “outstanding civil society action in the defence of human rights in Europe”, has been awarded.
11/04/2011 | Monitoring
“I am convinced that Ukraine’s rightful place is in Europe, and welcome its willingness to live up to European ideals and standards,” said Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin (Sweden EPP/CD), PACE co-rapporteur for the monitoring of Ukraine, following a visit to Kyiv and Lviv. She welcomed the continuing efforts of the authorities to meet Ukraine’s commitments to the Council of Europe and to respond to Assembly recommendations. However, at the same time she also stressed that some recent developments gave rise to concern.
11/04/2011 | Session
The credentials of the national delegations to the PACE from Montenegro, San Marino and Serbia were approved today, on the opening day of the Assembly’s spring session, after all three submitted new delegations which include at least one woman Representative.
11/04/2011 | Session
At the end of a debate on the over-indebtedness of states and its consequences for democracy and for citizens, parliamentarians called on European governments to devise "graduated strategies for public debt stabilisation and subsequent reduction". At the same time, member states should ensure that they "contain the erosion in living standards and citizen’s socio-economic rights", by endeavouring to spread the effects of austerity measures fairly across the population and to spare vulnerable groups the weight of adjustments.
11/04/2011 | Session
Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland called on Delegates to the Assembly to play their part in the Council of Europe’s political reform to make the whole Organisation more politically relevant, effective and influential. He said that the Organisation was now quicker and more focused in its response to external and internal challenges facing Europe.
07/04/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
The network of contact parliamentarians to stop sexual violence against children will be meeting for the second time in Strasbourg, on Wednesday 13 April. They will be looking at how to combat child pornography on the Internet. They will also have the opportunity to discover two new communication initiatives: a brochure and newsletter to be published in each Assembly part-session.