05/02/2010 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Christos Pourgourides (Cyprus, EPP/CD), rapporteur of PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, will make a fact-finding visit to Moscow on 8 and 9 February as part of the preparation of his report on the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. The cases considered by Mr Pourgourides cover those which raise serious implementation issues.
04/02/2010 | President
Mevlüt Çavusoglu, PACE President today welcomed the creation, by the Belarus parliament, of a working group “on the issue of death penalty as an instrument of punishment” composed by members of both chambers. He encouraged the working group to examine experience of Council of Europe member states in this field as it showed that there were no valid reasons to maintain the death penalty. “This is a positive step in the right direction. PACE stands ready to assist the Belarus parliament in this process,” he said.
02/02/2010 | Monitoring
“The Armenian authorities need to implement the reforms recommended by the ad hoc Committee of the National Assembly of Armenia on the events of 1 and 2 March 2008, without further delay,” concluded PACE co-rapporteurs, John Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC) and Georges Colombier (France, EPP/CD), following an exchange of views in the PACE Monitoring Committee last week. “The reforms recommended by the ad hoc Committee, in combination with those contained in the relevant PACE resolutions, if implemented in good faith, could comprehensively address the circumstances that led to the events of 1 and 2 March 2008,” the co-rapporteurs said.
02/02/2010 | Election observation
A 30-member PACE delegation, led by Mátyás Eörsi (Hungary, ALDE), will be in Ukraine from 5 to 8 February to observe the second round of the presidential election, alongside observers from the OSCE and NATO Parliamentary Assemblies, the European Parliament and the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). The delegation will meet the two candidates, the head of the election observation mission of OSCE/ODIHR and her team, the Central Electoral Commission and civil society and media representatives before observing the ballot on 7 February in a sample of polling stations across the country.
29/01/2010 | President
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu today met the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Mevlüt Çavusoglu at the end of the Assembly’s plenary session in Strasbourg. He congratulated the President on his election. Mr Çavusoglu is the 25th President of PACE, and the first Turk to hold this position.
29/01/2010 | Session
At the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, 179 countries adopted a Twenty-year Programme of Action, which focused on individuals’ needs and rights rather than on achieving demographic targets. Sixteen years later, the Assembly today noted that “while some progress has been made, achievements on education enrolment, gender equity and equality, infant child and maternal mortality and morbidity and the provision of universal access to sexual and reproductive health services, including family planning and safe abortion services, remain mixed”.
29/01/2010 | Session
At the close of its debate on the functioning of democratic institutions in Albania, PACE yesterday asked its Presidential Committee, accompanied by the Monitoring Committee's co-rapporteurs for Albania, Jaakko Laakso (Finland, UEL) and David Wilshire (United Kingdom, EDG), to visit Albania as soon as possible, “in order to support the process of resolving the current political situation and assist President Topi in his role of mediator and his efforts to restore political dialogue”.
28/01/2010 | Session
"Council of Europe member states should work together to create an organisational chain ready to intervene immediately in any major natural catastrophe,” said Luigi Vitali (Italy, EPP/CD), opening this morning’s current affairs debate on “What can Europe do for Haiti?” following the tragic earthquake there. States should co-ordinate the fair distribution of aid so that “it reaches those who most need it”, he said, avoiding a situation recently witnessed in Haiti where earthquake survivors were fighting each other over the aid available.
28/01/2010 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
The detention of asylum seekers and irregular migrants in Council of Europe member states has increased substantially in recent years. PACE today set down guiding principles on the legality of detention and put forward a number of European rules governing minimum standards for conditions in detention centres which should be guaranteed by member states and adopted by the Committee of Ministers as European rules. Following the proposals by the rapporteur (Ana Catarina Mendonça, Portugal, SOC), the parliamentarians encouraged member States to use alternatives to detention, such as placement in special establishments, release on bail/surety or electronic monitoring.
28/01/2010 | Session
Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE), PACE rapporteur on UN and EU anti-terrorist blacklists, has warmly welcomed this week’s ruling by Britain’s Supreme Court that the United Kingdom must not apply UN Security Council anti-terrorist sanctions where they violate basic human rights.
28/01/2010 | Session
The ten general committees of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have elected their Chairpersons, each for a term of office of one year. The Chairs are also members of the Bureau – which prepares the Assembly’s work – and the Joint Committee, which is the organ of co-ordination with the Committee of Ministers, the Council of Europe’s executive body. The full list of Chairpersons is as follows:
27/01/2010 | Session
Countries where justice is seen as the most corrupt institution must deal with the problem urgently, PACE said in a resolution today. Judges, prosecutors and police should be recruited and promoted only on merit, paid a reasonable wage, and develop their own ethical standards, the Assembly said, debating a report by Kimmo Sasi (Finland, EPP/CD). The Council of Europe should also draft a model code of conduct for judicial officials.