27/05/2010 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
Many elderly women are poor because they have no pension or their pension is insufficient, PACE’s Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men warned today. Also, traditional pension systems favour the linear career paths of men and are disconnected from the realities of present-day society. Adopting a report by Anna Curdová (Czech Republic, SOC), the committee called for “fair and equitable pensions offering every man and woman a reasonable standard of living”.
26/05/2010 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
A conference on human rights and migration is to take place in Lisbon from 31 May to 1 June 2010, focusing on the interception of migrants at sea, how they are detained and treated in receiving countries, the dangers they can face such as trafficking and racism, as well as what happens when they are expelled or forced to return.
26/05/2010 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
"Our meeting was the trigger needed for the parliament of Azerbaijan to take an important step towards a law against domestic violence that should hopefully be adopted before the summer, and could be then submitted to the Venice Commission for an opinion," said José Mendes Bota, Chairperson of the PACE Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, at the end of the 7th Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for Equality.
26/05/2010 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
The Equal Opportunities Committee will hold an exchange of views on 'Islam, Islamism and Islamophobia' on Thursday 27 May in Paris, in order to prepare an opinion on this topic. Participants include Sociologist Neslihan Akbulut from Turkey, Jill Marshall who is a senior lecturer at the University of London in the United Kingdom, and André Gerin, a French deputy who has prepared an information report on the wearing of the full veil in France.
25/05/2010 | President
Mevlüt Çavusoglu today met in Ankara with Jean-Claude Mignon, head of the French parliamentary delegation and an Assembly Vice-President. The PACE President said he appreciated the work and the commitment of Mr Mignon on behalf of the Council of Europe and its Assembly. Mr Çavusoglu and Mr Mignon discussed the reform process of the Council of Europe and the role of the Assembly in this regard, as well as the need to launch the Assembly’s own reform process.
25/05/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE Environment Committee will hold a hearing on genetically modified organisms at the Council of Europe Office in Paris, at 2.30pm on 28 May, to prepare a report on the subject by Jean-François Le Grand (France, EPP/CD).
25/05/2010 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu will take part in the Third Global Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations initative in Rio de Janeiro (27-28 May 2010), alongside Brazilian President Lula da Silva and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, as well as the co-sponsors of the initiative Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the President of the Spanish Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
25/05/2010 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
"National parliaments are key players to promote gender equalities - and synergies with governments are needed. It is time indeed to bridge the gap between de jure and de facto equality. Drafting and adopting laws is not enough", today said in Baku José Mendes Bota, Chairperson of the PACE Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, adressing the 7th Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for Equality between Women and Men.
21/05/2010 | Standing Committee
While recalling that the Council of Europe plays a major role in setting standards in the human rights field and in developing international law, the Assembly today called on member states to renew their commitment vis-à-vis this normative corpus. To this end, the number of ratifications of treaties – particularly the more basic conventions – must increase. Furthermore, existing treaties must be re-examined and updated as appropriate or indeed, in extreme cases, abrogated, the parliamentarians said.
21/05/2010 | Standing Committee
The European air transport industry, which in normal times provides employment for over 3 million people in the EU, has been put under severe pressure by the recession. And although prospects have improved with the recent recovery of economic activity, the air transport industry faces a range of intensifying challenges. The Assembly called on European States to implement a supportive and above all better coordinated European regulatory framework so to respond to challenges such as industry consolidation, alliances and cost-reduction as well as fine-tuning the response to demand.
21/05/2010 | Standing Committee
Gender budgeting is a tool for safeguarding women’s health, PACE said today. Adopting a report by Ingrida Circene (Latvia, PP/CD), the parliamentarians said that since health research shows that disease differs between men and women, strategies of prevention and treatment should be adapted to their differing needs. Governments, they said, should be much more aware of gender differences in developing health policies and use gender-budgeting techniques to allocate resources in a fair and efficient way.
21/05/2010 | Standing Committee
The Assembly today welcomed the new code of Code of good practice in the field of political parties, prepared by the Venice Commission. The report by Pedro Agramunt (Spain, EPP/CD) considers it "a systematic repertoire of best practice in Europe", offering public authorities and courts a yardstick to assess the practice of political parties continent-wide. The Assembly should forward it to national delegations, parliaments and political parties.