24/11/2009 | Monitoring
PACE’s Monitoring Committee should have a greater focus on the rights of vulnerable groups, such as children, the elderly, the disabled, migrants and minorities, according to its Chairperson. “The financial crisis will continue to have detrimental effects on how these groups are treated,” pointed out Serhiy Holovaty (Ukraine, ALDE) at a recent hearing. The Committee decided to make greater use of these bodies’ work when assessing how vulnerable groups in monitored countries are faring in the justice system, employment, housing and education, and whether they face discrimination or racism.
23/11/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
John Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC), PACE rapporteur on climate change, today called on the leaders of the United States, China and India to personally take part in the Copenhagen climate change conference in December. “These talks are vital for the future of the planet. These three countries can make the difference between success and failure. It is vital that their leaders are there, alongside the 60 other presidents and prime ministers who have already said they are coming,” he said.
20/11/2009 | President
PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig has written to the new President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and the new EU Foreign Affairs High Representative Baroness Ashton to congratulate them on their election. In his letters, he stressed the “common aim” of the two bodies, the EU and the Council of Europe, to create a stronger European identity, built around common values, and invited them to address the Assembly soon.
20/11/2009 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
Irrespective of her origin or background, any victim of gender-based violence residing in Europe must be able to receive protection and rehabilitation, said PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig, in a statement on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. "In this context, the Assembly forcefully and resolutely perseveres with its commitment to promote the drafting of the future Council of Europe convention to prevent and combat violence against women, including domestic violence," he said.
20/11/2009 | Standing Committee
In their addresses at the opening of PACE Standing Committee today in Bern, Chiara Simoneschi-Cortesi, President of the National Council of the Swiss Confederation and Micheline Calmy-Rey, Federal Councillor and Head of the Federal Foreign Affairs Department, recalled the major contribution of the Council of Europe and its Assembly to peace and progress in Europe. Further efforts must be made to guarantee the long-term effectiveness of the European Court of Human Rights and specifically of individual petitions, they stressed.
20/11/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Christos Pourgourides (Cyprus, EPP/CD), rapporteur of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of PACE, will make a fact-finding visit to Rome on 23 and 24 November as part of the preparation of his report on the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. This is the third, after Bulgaria and Ukraine, in a series of visits intended to bring parliamentary pressure to bear on states where the execution of the Court’s judgments meets with delays or difficulties.
20/11/2009 | Election observation
An eight-member, cross-party delegation from PACE, led by Mátyás Eörsi (Hungary, ALDE), will carry out a pre-electoral mission to Kyiv on 24-26 November, ahead of the presidential election in Ukraine on 17 January 2010, to assess the electoral framework and campaign so far. The delegation intends to meet candidates, including Volodymyr Lytvyn, Yuliya Tymoshenko, Viktor Yanukovich and Viktor Yushchenko. It will also meet the Chairman of the Constitutional Court, election officials and representatives of civil society and the media.
19/11/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (Germany ALDE), the former Rapporteur on "politically-motivated abuses of the criminal justice system in Council of Europe member states", today expressed her dismay at the death in a remand prison in Moscow of the lawyer Sergey Magnitsky, who had defended Hermitage Investment/HSBC against fraudulent manoeuvres allegedly involving high Russian officials, as described in the report adopted by the Assembly in October 2009.
19/11/2009 | President
PACE President, Lluís Maria de Puig, will be making an official visit to Hungary from 23 to 25 November. He is scheduled to hold meetings with President László Sólyom, the Speaker of the National Assembly Béla Katona, Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai, the State Secretary in the Foreign Ministry Vilmos Szabó, and with the State Secretary, Head of the Foreign Affairs’ Office Péter Sárdi.
19/11/2009 | President
“This is good news – and another step in the right direction,” said PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig, reacting to today’s decision by Russia’s Constitutional Court concerning the death penalty. “However Russia promised, when it joined the Council of Europe thirteen years ago, to abolish the death penalty in law and ratify Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights. It remains the only Council of Europe country which has not done so.”
19/11/2009 | Monitoring
PACE Monitoring Committee yesterday appointed Joseph Debono Grech (Malta, SOC) as new co-rapporteur for Azerbaijan. He is replacing Evguenia Jivkova (Bulgaria, SOC).
18/11/2009 | Monitoring
The two co-rapporteurs of PACE for the war between Georgia and Russia today called on the de facto authorities in Tskhinvali to release without delay the four Georgian teenagers arrested on 4 November 2009. “The arrest and prolonged detention of these young people will only increase the tensions and bad blood between the people in this bitterly divided region,” said the co-rapporteurs, Mátyás Eörsi (Hungary, ALDE) and Luc Van den Brande (Belgium, EPP/CD).