11/03/2011 | Standing Committee
There are “numerous and serious” risks linked to the use of genetically modified organisms in agriculture, including many uncertainties about the transfer of genetic material, but they could also, to a certain extent, provide a means of combating famine and the food crisis, PACE’s Standing Committee has said.
11/03/2011 | Standing Committee
Retribution and punishment should take second place to social measures for the education and rehabilitation of young offenders, PACE Standing Committee said today. In a resolution based on a report by Marietta Karamanli (France, SOC), PACE said depriving children and young people of liberty should be a last resort.
11/03/2011 | Standing Committee
European states should enhance and modernise the legal framework surrounding biometric data used to identify individuals – such as DNA samples, fingerprinting, retina images or voice recordings – so that their use does not infringe human rights, according to PACE’s Standing Committee.
11/03/2011 | Standing Committee
"For the Council of Europe the current events in the Arab world are of major importance - not only because they affect peace and security in the region and beyond; but also because of our deep historic and cultural links and our close inter-dependence," PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said during a current affairs debate of the Standing Committee in Paris.
11/03/2011 | Standing Committee
The Standing Committee has just approved the setting up of an Ad hoc committee of the Bureau on recent detentions, prosecutions and convictions of members of the opposition in Belarus, tasked with gathering and analysing all relevant information concerning the events of 19 December 2010 following the presidential election in Belarus and subsequent developments in respect of members of the opposition.
11/03/2011 | Monitoring
John Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC) and Axel Fischer (Germany, EPP/CD), PACE co-rapporteurs on the honouring of obligations and commitments by Armenia, will make a fact-finding visit to the country on 16 and 17 March 2011. They will be focusing in particular on outstanding issues concerning the events of March 2008, the main elements of the reform package announced by the authorities, and the media environment.
11/03/2011 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has written to the Speakers of both houses of the Japanese Parliament to express his “profound sympathy with the people of Japan” following the earthquake there today, and to convey his solidarity with the victims.
11/03/2011 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
The EU’s migration and asylum policy will come under the spotlight, in particular the human rights implications, at a PACE hearing in Brussels on Wednesday 16th March, entitled “Beyond Stockholm: implications for migrants and asylum seekers in Council of Europe member states”.
11/03/2011 | Standing Committee
PACE’s Standing Committee has warmly welcomed the draft Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, as the first international binding instrument specifically devoted to this issue and as an important step forward for equality.
10/03/2011 | Political Affairs and Democracy
In a hearing on the situation in Tunisia and the possible Council of Europe contribution, organised by PACE's Political Affairs Committee in Paris on 9 March, participants stressed that the Jasmine Revolution was the Tunisian people’s revolution and that it was for them to build the society and state they wished to have.
09/03/2011 | President
Over the years, the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina has built a successful multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual society, said PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, speaking at the end of a visit to the Autonomous Province on 8 March 2011. “I welcome the efforts of the institutions of Vojvodina aiming at promoting integration and supporting minority communities in the fields of education, culture, the use of minority languages and access to the media,” he added.
09/03/2011 | Political Affairs and Democracy
At a meeting of the PACE Political Affairs Committee in Paris today, the rapporteur on the situation in Belarus Sinikka Hurskainen (Finland, SOC) strongly condemned the continuing repression of civil society, human rights defenders, independent media and political opponents in Belarus.