01/02/2011 | President
"All forms of intolerance towards those considered 'different' are on the rise again. Ethnic, religious or cultural differences between people are being artificially exacerbated and manipulated in political discourse, to divert attention from the real problems and real solutions. Politicians and parties reverting to such discourse have now been democratically elected in many national parliaments," warned PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, speaking today in Auschwitz at a ceremony in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
28/01/2011 | Session
In a text adopted today PACE called on member states to ratify and implement the European Social Charter (1961 and revised in 1996), this being the anniversary year where both the 50 years since the original charter was agreed and the 15 years since its revision will be celebrated.
28/01/2011 | Session
Inequalities in access to health education, information and preventive care still exist, the Assembly warned today. The well educated part of the population enjoys easy access to the resources allocated whilst disadvantaged groups experience greater difficulties. Following the proposals by the rapporteur (Liliane Maury-Pasquier, Switzerland, SOC), the Assembly called on European governments to evaluate their preventive health care strategies, paying renewed attention to the social determinants of health.
28/01/2011 | Session
In a resolution adopted today on the basis of a report on capitalising on older people’s working potential by Denis Jacquat (France, EPP/CD), PACE proposed a series of measures to promote active ageing. In the Assembly’s view, states should, in particular, consider “adopting legislation to prohibit age discrimination and removing labour-market barriers”, thus enabling older people to enter, remain in or return to the labour market more flexibly.
28/01/2011 | Monitoring
Joseph Debono Grech (Malta, SOC) and Pedro Agramunt (Spain, EPP/CD), PACE co-rapporteurs on the honouring of obligations and commitments by Azerbaijan, will be making a fact-finding visit to that country on 1-3 February. In Baku, talks are scheduled with the President of the Republic, the Speaker of Parliament, the Ministers of Justice and National Security, the Prosecutor General and the Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission.
27/01/2011 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
"Worrying evidence of global climate change continues to mount. According to the World Meteorological Organisation, 2010 was the warmest year on record, and the nine other warmest years have all occurred since 1998, while winter Arctic sea-ice cover reached its lowest level ever", underlines a statement adopted by PACE's Environment Committee.
27/01/2011 | Session
At the opening of this morning`s session, the President of the Assembly regretfully announced that the Prime Minister of Albania, Sali Berisha, would not be able to be present in Strasbourg and to make his speech this afternoon at 3pm.
27/01/2011 | Session
Christian communities could disappear from the Middle East, where Christianity had its beginnings, if low birth rates and emigration – fuelled in some places by discrimination and persecution – are not properly addressed, PACE has warned. In a recommendation adopted today, based on a report by Luca Volontè (Italy, EPP/CD), the Assembly unequivocally condemned the October 2010 massacre of worshippers in the Syriac Catholic cathedral in Baghdad and the January 2011 suicide bombing in a Coptic church in Alexandria.
27/01/2011 | Session
The protection of the rights and the integration of the nomad Roma cannot be the only responsibility of countries of origin, it requires international cooperation and support from pan European institutions such as the Council of Europe, said Traian Bãsescu, President of Romania on 27 January at the Parliamentary Assembly.
27/01/2011 | President
In his speech at a commemoration ceremony on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day held at the Council of Europe today, the PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu stressed the importance of the event “to keep alive the memory of millions of innocent victims”.“All forms of intolerance towards those considered ‘different’ are on the rise again – be it anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or racism and xenophobia in general.
27/01/2011 | Session
Dismayed by the unprecedented wave of violence and persecution which followed the announcement of the results of the presidential election in Belarus in December 2010, the Assembly today called on the Belarus authorities to “release immediately” all opposition candidates, journalists and human rights activists detained on political grounds and to put an end to all acts of harassment and intimidation...
27/01/2011 | Session
Following the vast protest movement in Tunisia, which put an end to Ben Ali’s 23 years of rule over the country and led to the composition of a new government on 17 January, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has called on “Tunisia’s political forces to start democratic reforms without delay” so as not to fail the people’s expectations.