10/03/2010 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
PACE Committee on Culture, Science and Education voted unanimously this morning in favour of a Europe-wide ban on the marketing, sale and use of "Mosquito" acoustic youth dispersal devices in all public places. The text adopted, drafted by Piotr Wach (Poland, EPP/CD), states that the use of these devices constitutes a "disproportionate interference with the right to respect for one’s private life, including the right to respect for one’s physical integrity" and contravenes the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular regarding health and safety.
09/03/2010 | President
“One of the priorities of my presidency is to strengthen co-operation with the European Parliament, in particular through PACE involvement in the recently set-up parliamentary branch of the Eastern Partnership Initiative Euronid, through more regular committee meetings and closer contacts between PACE and EP rapporteurs,” the President of the Parliamentary Assembly Mevlüt Cavusoglu said at the end of meetings with the President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek and leaders of the EP’s political groups in Strasbourg on 8-9 March.
09/03/2010 | Standing Committee
Debates on the protection of minorities in Europe, children who witness domestic violence, rethinking creative rights for the Internet age and the wage gap between women and men will feature on the agenda of PACE Standing Committee at its meeting in Paris on Friday 12 March 2010. The meeting will be opened by Mevlüt Çavusoglu, recently elected President of the PACE. The committee will also examine reports on rules and procedures for the future elections of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe and the term of office of co-rapporteurs of the PACE's Monitoring Committee.
08/03/2010 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Jean-Charles Gardetto (Monaco, EPP/CD), rapporteur of PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights on the protection of witnesses as the cornerstone for justice and reconciliation in the Balkans, will make a fact-finding visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 9 to 11 March. During his visit, Mr Gardetto will meet representatives of the Ministries of Justice and Security and representatives of the judiciary, the police, and the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA).
05/03/2010 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE Sub-Committee on the Middle East, under the chairmanship of Lluís Maria de Puig (Spain, SOC), held a two-day meeting (4-5 March) in Izmir (Turkey) at the invitation of the Turkish delegation to PACE. Against the backdrop of PACE Resolution 1700 (2010) on the Situation in the Middle East, the Sub-Committee decided to prepare the second session of the Tripartite Forum, bringing together the PACE, the Knesset and the Palestinian Legislative Council.
05/03/2010 | President
PACE President, Mevlüt Çavusoglu, will be holding talks with the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, in Strasbourg on 8 March 2010. On the same day and the following day, 9 March, Mr Çavusoglu will also be meeting the leaders of the political groups in the European Parliament: Joseph Daul (EPP), Martin Schulz (PES), Graham Watson (ALDE) and Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Greens/European Free Alliance), as well as Stefan Füle, European Commissioner for Enlargement.
05/03/2010 | President
According to Micheline Calmy-Rey, Chair of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, speaking on International Women's Day, women make up more than half the population and the electorate of the organisation’s member states, but are still grossly under-represented in key political and public decision-making posts in many of those member countries. PACE President, Mevlüt Çavusoglu, added that the worldwide situation was serious, with less than 20 per cent of parliamentary seats held by women, and not even 5 per cent of heads of state being women.“A substantial increase of the representation of women in politics is indispensable to improve the quality of our democracies,” he said.
04/03/2010 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu has urged parliamentarians from both sides in the Middle East peace process to continue engaging in dialogue with the help of the Parliamentary Assembly. Addressing a meeting of the Sub-committee on the Middle East today in Izmir (Turkey), he called for a re-launch of PACE’s Tripartite Forum, which has brought together parliamentarians from Europe, from the Knesset and from the Palestinian Legislative Council. The President said he would “spare no efforts” to support those on both sides who wanted to solve the conflict.
03/03/2010 | President
Bosnia and Herzegovina urgently needs wide constitutional change, but – as an immediate first step, before the October elections – at least the provisions excluding some citizens from standing for the Presidency and the House of Peoples should be changed, PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu said today in Sarajevo. Speaking at a press conference at the end of a three-day official visit to the country (1-3 March), the President said: “It can be done in two months, before the deadline for changes to the electoral law. The substance is there – we have sound proposals from the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, as well as domestic and international initiatives – but what is needed is the political will.”
02/03/2010 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu has urged Bosnia and Herzegovina to make swift constitutional changes ending discrimination in elections to the Presidency and House of Peoples, in line with the recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Sejdic and Finci v. BiH.
02/03/2010 | President
Delegations from the Israeli Knesset and the Palestinian Legislative Council are to continue discussing ways of fostering contact and building confidence at a meeting of PACE Sub-committee on the Middle East taking place on 4-5 March 2010 in Izmir, Turkey. PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu will address the meeting, along with the Governor of Izmir Cahit Kiraç and other leading Turkish officials. There will also be an exchange of views with experts working on Turkish initiatives to build confidence in the region.
01/03/2010 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
José Mendes Bota (Portugal, EPP/CD), Chair of the PACE Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, today represented the Assembly at an event organised in New York by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, on the role of parliaments in enforcing legislation on violence against women. This event was held in the fringe of the 54th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.