29/06/2010 | President
"Parliaments must be the driving force behind the elaboration of national action plans for intercultural and inter-religious dialogue. They must contribute to such plans not only through ideas and political impetus, but also through parliamentary control of the executive which has to implement them", PACE President said today addressing in Astana the OSCE Conference on tolerance and non-discrimination. "Besides such specific plans, parliaments should take into account the intercultural and inter-religious dimension in their overall legislative work", Mr Cavusoglu said.
28/06/2010 | President
"We are witnessing a revolution of sorts – in Europe and the world – in which women are rising in large numbers to claim leadership roles in our societies," said PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu, encouraging young female leaders in his opening address to the fifth annual Summer University for Democracy in Strasbourg today. "Much remains to be done, and the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly are in the midst of this struggle which I consider vital for the good management of the world of the future," said the PACE President.
28/06/2010 | President
“Today we pay our respects to all victims of torture. We also pay tribute to all those who work to denounce cases of torture and provide help to alleviate their tragic consequences. The Council of Europe has been fighting torture during the more than 60 years of its existence. All 47 Council of Europe member states stand behind the prohibition of this and other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as required by the European Convention on Human Rights," declared the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers and the PACE President.
28/06/2010 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu will make an official visit to Moscow on 1-2 July. During his visit, he will meet the Speaker of the State Duma Boris Gryzlov, the Chairman of the Federation Council Sergey Mironov and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov. Talks are also scheduled with the leaders of factions in the State Duma, young politicians, and with representatives of NGOs.
28/06/2010 | Monitoring
Democratic development in Georgia “continues unabated”, despite some set-backs and despite the war, PACE’s two monitoring co-rapporteurs on the country have said. In an information note on their visit to Tbilisi in March, made public today, Kastriot Islami (Albania, SOC) and Michael Aastrup Jensen (Denmark, ALDE) welcomed a second wave of democratic reforms which took place in the aftermath of the war.
25/06/2010 | Session
PACE today called for a series of measures to protect the world`s forests in both member and non-member states especially considering how illegal logging has led to mass deforestation in developing countries. These measures include establishing more effective monitoring mechanisms and drawing up binding international agreements to limit deforestation, and proposing the development of sustainable forest management techniques.
25/06/2010 | Session
In a resolution adopted today, the Parliamentary Assembly recommends a series of measures designed to combat sexist stereotypes in the media. It invites in particular the member states to set up regulatory and self-regulatory media authorities to reduce gender-based discrimination and to devise codes of good practice with partners in the profession to promote the balanced presence of women and men in the media.
25/06/2010 | Session
PACE has called for a ban on all acoustic devices which discriminate against young people, such as the Mosquito “youth dispersal” device which emits a powerful sound signal audible to almost everybody under 20, but few over 25, in order to prevent young people from loitering. In a recommendation unanimously adopted today, based on a report by Piotr Wach (Poland, EPP/CD), the Assembly – which brings together parliamentarians from the 47 member states of the Council of Europe – said the “highly offensive” device discriminates against young people, treating them as if they are “unwanted birds or pests”.
25/06/2010 | Session
Many elderly women are poor because they have no pension or their pension is insufficient, PACE warned today. Also, traditional pension systems favour the linear career paths of men and are disconnected from the realities of present-day society. Following the proposals by Anna Curdová (Czech Republic, SOC), the Assembly called for “fair and equitable pensions offering every man and woman a reasonable standard of living”. The adopted text urges European states to guarantee a personal pension entitlement and to revise their pension laws in order not only to prohibit discrimination between women and men but also to provide for “positive discrimination in favour of women”.
25/06/2010 | Session
Following the new rules governing the duration of the mandate of its co-rapporteurs, now limited to five years, the Monitoring Committee appointed yesterday as co-rapporteurs:
24/06/2010 | Session
Ahead of the parliamentary elections in November 2010, PACE today called on the Azerbaijani authorities “to ensure the necessary conditions for the full compliance of the forthcoming elections with the European standards”. In line with the conclusions of the monitoring co-rapporteurs, Andres Herkel (Estonia, EPP/CD) and Joseph Debono Grech (Malta, SOC), it encouraged the authorities to co-operate with the Venice Commission in order to continue with the revision of the electoral code and to “generate conditions for a fair electoral campaign” by fully implementing the law on the freedom of assembly and by ensuring the freedom of the media.
24/06/2010 | Session
Strasbourg, 24.06.2010 – At the end of a debate on the handling of the H1N1 pandemic, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) today endorsed the conclusions of its Health Committee, which were published on 4 June last. According to the Assembly, the handling of the pandemic by the...