18/05/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Jószef Berényi (Slovak Republic, EPP/CD), PACE rapporteur on the situation of Roma and Chair of the Assembly’s Sub-Committee on Rights of Minorities, made the following statement, speaking after a hearing on the subject in Târgu Mures, Romania: “It is with a feeling of revolt and shame that I note that in recent times the Roma minority has been the victim of attacks of a rare violence in several Council of Europe member states. In Italy, Roma camp sites have been burnt down, in Hungary two members of a Roma family – including one child – were killed in an attack on their home..."
15/05/2009 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
Supporting a report by Miet Smet (Belgium, EPP/CD) on sexual violence against women in armed conflict, the PACE Equal Opportunities Committee has approved a series of measures to ensure that justice is done whenever a women is raped during an armed conflict. The committee considers that in order to put a stop to sexual violence against women in armed conflict, it is vital to include this crime against humanity in the future Council of Europe Convention on the severest and most widespread forms of violence against women.
15/05/2009 | News
Supporting a report by Miet Smet (Belgium, EPP/CD) on sexual violence against women in armed conflict, the PACE Committee on Equal Opportunities between Women and Men has approved a series of measures to ensure that justice is done whenever a women is raped during an armed conflict. The committee considers that in order to put a stop to sexual violence against women in armed conflict, it is vital to include this crime against humanity in the future Council of Europe Convention on the severest and most widespread forms of violence against women.
15/05/2009 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“All the necessary background legal regulations to combat violence against women have been enacted in Turkey, but they are not yet fully implemented, thus it is difficult to say that these regulations can eradicate violence against women,“ said Turkey’s Minister responsible for Family and Women’s Affairs Selma Kavaf, speaking at the first meeting of the PACE network of contact parliamentarians on combating violence against women, taking place today in Istanbul.
15/05/2009 | President
Strasbourg, 15.05.2009 – A concrete proposal to inscribe “the right to a healthy environment” into the European system of human rights protection is to be debated in September by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), its President announced yesterday. Addressing the Nevsky...
14/05/2009 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“No religion advocates so-called ‘honour crimes’, and there is no honour in these crimes,” said John Austin (United Kingdom, SOC), at a meeting of the PACE Equality Committee in Istanbul today. “All forms of violence against women in the name of traditional codes of honour must be considered to be crimes, unacceptable in any culture, and be harshly punished by the courts. We should not concede any form of social and cultural relativism,” said Mr Austin, the author of a report on the urgent need to combat these crimes, which was today approved by the Equality Committee.
14/05/2009 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Speaking at the plenary meeting of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly in St Petersburg today, Alan Meale (United Kingdom, SOC) recalled that whilst the Council of Europe was celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, its work was not finished. "Our values are potent but vulnerable. We keep on building Greater Europe every day. Rooting our values in daily life, protecting human dignity, is an unfinished task and a mission that should guide our efforts," he said.
13/05/2009 | President
PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig has said that the Council of Europe can point to “an extremely positive” record of achievement in the last sixty years. Addressing the organisation’s Foreign Ministers in Madrid at a meeting to mark the 60th anniversary, the President said the Council’s moral force flowed from “a unique combination of diplomatic subtlety and rigour in defending our values”. Concerning the Ministers’ decision to forward a list containing two candidates for the election to the post of Secretary General, the President said that although he was not yet in a position to present the Assembly’s reaction, he thought that the parliamentarians “are not going to like this decision”.
11/05/2009 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
At a meeting in Istanbul on Thursday 14 May, the Equality Committee of PACE will discuss the report by John Austin (United Kingdom, SOC) on the urgent need for action on so-called “honour crimes”, which sets out specific legislative, preventive and victim-protection measures for dealing with this violation of women’s fundamental rights. The United Nations Population Fund estimates that a total of up to 5,000 people a year fall victim to “honour” killings.
11/05/2009 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
“It is a shame for Europe that 15 to 20 years after the conflicts which ravaged the South Caucasus region in the early 1990s, hundreds of thousands of people displaced by these conflicts continue to live in shabby and marginalised conditions with little prospect of return or restitution of their property,” said John Greenway (United Kingdom, EDG), rapporteur on protecting the human rights of long-term displaced persons, at the close of his four-day fact-finding mission to Yerevan and Baku. “The international community must reinvigorate its efforts to find new political impetus to create durable solutions for these people. We should avoid them becoming Europe’s forgotten people.”
06/05/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The PACE rapporteur on abolition of the death penalty, Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD), has welcomed the promise by the Laos authorities not to apply the death penalty against British national Samantha Orobator, who was allegedly caught smuggling drugs. The 20-year-old woman fell pregnant in prison and is due to give birth in September. "The death penalty is a terrible violation of the right to life at all times, but Samantha's case is a demonstration for all to see that death is not justice," said Mrs Wohlwend. PACE would continue to follow the case closely, she said.
05/05/2009 | Monitoring
“While it is too early to give a full assessment of the effects of the changes to articles 225 and 300 of the Criminal Code of Armenia, the first signals give reason for optimism” stated the two co-rapporteurs with respect of Armenia, George Colombier (France, EPP/CD) and John Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC), after the discussions that took place last week in Strasbourg in PACE Monitoring Committee on the recent political developments in Armenia.