30/04/2009 | Session
In a text adopted today on the humanitarian consequences of the war between Georgia and Russia and the follow-up given to Resolution 1648 (2009), PACE recommends that priority be given to dialogue between all parties, and steps must be taken to support civil society initiatives. “It is the people living in the conflict region who are the victims of this conflict. Steps have to be taken to give them opportunities to build up a humane and peaceful future without further war. To achieve this, building trust is essential. Without political willingness to go for solutions, nothing will change,” said Corien Jonker (Netherlands, EPP/CD), Rapporteur for the Committee on Migration, who made a fact-finding visit to South Ossetia on 13 and 14 March this year.
29/04/2009 | Prizes
The 2009 Europe Prize has been awarded to the Turkish town of Ankara. The decision was taken unanimously by PACE Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs meeting today in Strasbourg. Through its forty twinnings in the world, Ankara has developed a very dense network of international contacts and attaches great importance to the development of cultural relations by organising every year Cultural Days. And thanks to its international conferences (such as the 5th Glocal Forum) it has contributed to strengthening friendship and understanding among people.
29/04/2009 | Session
The Assembly reviewed this morning the action taken by Georgia and Russia on Resolution 1647 (2009) adopted by the PACE in January 2009. The information report submitted by the co-rapporteurs of the Monitoring Committee (Luc Van den Brande (Belgium, EPP/CD) and Mátyás Eörsi (Hungary, ALDE)) concluded that Georgia has not yet fully complied with all of the Assembly’s demands. Russia, for its part, has failed to comply with most of the demands and might even be seen as moving further away from the minimum conditions for meaningful dialogue.
28/04/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
According to PACE, despite the fact that the number of women in prison in Europe is growing, women are still only a minority of the prison population, with the consequence that prisons are mainly designed for men and often do not address the specific needs of women. Moreover, as there are very few prisons for women, and even fewer places for women in pre-trial detention, women are held further away from their home, which means cutting family ties.
28/04/2009 | Session
In a resolution adopted today, PACE invited the member states to adapt their national legislation in order to prohibit and penalise forced marriages, female genital mutilation and any other gender-based violations of human rights, encouraging them to prosecute abductions, illegal confinements and forced returns of women or girls to their countries of origin. According to the parliamentarians, cultural or religious relativism cannot be invoked to justify these acts.
28/04/2009 | Session
Despite a period of turbulent transformation and several challenges, Serbia is “moving forward and making progress on the road to European integration”, according to PACE. In a resolution adopted today, the Assembly called on Serbia to prepare a “roadmap” of concrete actions to reform its democratic institutions – especially the parliament – improve human rights and reinforce the rule of law. This would “prepare the way” for closing the Assembly’s monitoring procedure, the parliamentarians said.
28/04/2009 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE Political Affairs Committee today held an exchange of views with Shen Ting, Chairperson of the Chinese League of Victims of the Shanghai 2010 World Expo. According to Mrs Ting, in the framework of the development of the World Expo site, there have been many incidents in which residents have been removed from the site against their will. “The actions of the Shanghai authorities over the past few years demonstrate that the government has utterly deviated from the principles of the World Expo and from the commitment it made - no coercive removals - in its bid to host the Expo by violating the basic rights of the original inhabitants of the World Expo site.”
28/04/2009 | Session
'Markets alone cannot give answers to the current economic crisis, declared Tarja Halonen, President of Finland, adressing the Parliamentary Assembly on 28 April. Referring to recovery plans, Mrs Halonen reminded listeners that "a human-rights based approach will lead to more equitable and sustainable solutions" and that "the Council of Europe can provide us with useful tools in responding to the challenges of today," she said.
28/04/2009 | Session
The Assembly today reminded European governments of their “obligation and responsibility” to protect human rights defenders and their work “by providing an enabling environment” and, if necessary, “protection mechanisms to ensure the physical integrity” of those who face specific threats. The parliamentarians expressed concern about the situation of human rights defenders who are most exposed to attacks and abuses: those fighting against impunity for serious crimes and against corruption, as well as those working on economic, social and cultural rights, on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, as well as for the rights of migrants, national or ethnic minorities.
27/04/2009 | Session
Declaring a state of emergency should be “a means of last resort only”, clearly limited in time and subject to legislative and judicial oversight, according to PACE. Approving a report by Holger Haibach (Germany, EPP/CD) today, the Assembly said it was “concerned” by recent declarations of states of emergency in several member states, especially Georgia and Armenia. While permitted under the European Convention on Human Rights “in time of war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation”, such declarations should never exceed what is required by the situation, and should always stay within international law, the parliamentarians said.
27/04/2009 | Session
PACE today decided to award its Human Rights Prize to British Irish Rights Watch, a non-governmental organisation which since 1990 has been monitoring the human rights dimension of the Northern Ireland conflict and, more recently, the peace process. In March a panel including leading figures from the world of human rights chose British Irish Rights Watch from among fourteen individuals and NGOs nominated for the prize and praised its “courageous and outstanding work in monitoring and bringing to light human rights abuses, and its fight against impunity in Northern Ireland”.
27/04/2009 | Session
In his opening speech, PACE President, Lluís Maria de Puig, underlined that Durban II illustrated that “hatred, intolerance and destructive urges persist despite the determination that has been the driving force of all the democratic movements since the Second World War, a determination to eradicate the outrages which occurred as a result of this self-same hatred."