07/04/2011 | President
Adressing the World Forum on Intercultural dialogue in Baku, PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu today underlined that building the environment for successful intercultural dialogue is key to achieving Council of Europe goals. "But our work does not stop there. We must design and implement comprehensive national policies for promoting intercultural dialogue. In this area, the Council of Europe has a wealth of expertise to contribute,” he underlined, while emphasising the role of parliaments in this process.
07/04/2011 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has issued an urgent call for Roma to be given a stronger voice at local, national and international level. “The Roma are Europe’s largest minority, present in virtually every one of the Council of Europe’s 47 member states, yet their participation in public and political life is minimal,” the President pointed out, speaking on the eve of International Roma Day, 8 April.
06/04/2011 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
On the occasion of World Health Day (7 April 2011), whose theme this year is action to combat antimicrobial resistance, Liliane Maury Pasquier (Switzerland, SOC), the Chair of the PACE's Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee, has today called on WHO to “continue its action to counter antimicrobial resistance while being as thorough and transparent as possible in its approach to the selection of experts so as to ensure that future decisions by national governments are based on advice entirely devoid of any conflict of interest”...
04/04/2011 | Election observation
The observer delegation of the PACE welcomes the orderly organisation and conduct of the voting in the 3 April early Presidential election in Kazakhstan. Electoral officials conducted their work efficiently and, generally, demonstrated a high degree of professionalism. Polling stations observed were exemplarily well equipped for a good election, and the overall atmosphere was relaxed and business-like. The turnout was good, which testifies to public confidence in the process.
04/04/2011 | Monitoring
Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin (Sweden, EPP/CD), PACE co-rapporteur on the honouring of obligations and commitments by Ukraine, will undertake a fact-finding visit to that country from 5 to 8 April. In Kyiv, meetings are planned with the President of the Republic Viktor Yanukovych, the Speaker of Parliament Volodymyr Lytvyn, the Minister of Justice and Head of the working group in charge of the reform of electoral legislation Oleksandr Lavrynovytch, the Head of the Security Service Valery Horoshkovskyi, and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
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.