01/10/2024 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Julian Assange, accompanied by his wife Stella, took part in a parliamentary hearing on his detention and conviction - and their chilling effect on human rights - ahead of a full plenary debate on this topic by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) due on Wednesday 2 October...
01/10/2024 | Session
Propaganda can be used to manipulate public opinion and threaten our common values and human dignity, as well as the proper functioning of our democratic systems, impairing the development of free opinions and informed citizen participation in public debate and decision making, the Assembly said...
01/10/2024 | Session
PACE expressed today its concern about the phenomenon of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers going missing, “a tragedy largely underestimated as a human rights issue,” believing that policy responses are needed across Europe and the world. It marked its solidarity with the families of the...
01/10/2024 | Session
"The combined effects of these wars, along with climate change and the erosion of democracy, present an unprecedented challenge to our societies. A challenge I have tried to describe as the perfect storm. In the face of this challenge, the Council of Europe has already demonstrated its strength...
01/10/2024 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“Human rights should not be denied or limited with age”, said Andrea Eder-Gitschthaler, (Austria, EPP/CD) on the occasion of the International Day of Older Persons (1 October). Ms Eder-Gitschthaler, rapporteur on “Overcoming age-based discrimination against older persons”, underlines that access...
30/09/2024 | Session
The award ceremony for the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize 2024 - which rewards outstanding human rights defenders around the world - was a highlight of the autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), held in Strasbourg from 30 September to 4 October 2024. One...
30/09/2024 | Prizes
The twelfth Václav Havel Human Rights Prize – which honours outstanding civil society action in defence of human rights – has been awarded to leading Venezuelan political figure and rights defender María Corina Machado. The 60,000-euro prize was presented at a special ceremony on the opening day...
30/09/2024 | Session
In his statement before the award ceremony for the 2024 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, Vladimir Kara-Murza – the prize winner in 2022 – conveyed his deep respect to this year’s finalists and paid tribute to the past recipients who were still held in captivity “for the only ‘crime’ of expressing...
30/09/2024 | Session
PACE today elected, at the opening of its Autumn 2023 Session, two news Vice-Presidents: Gerardo Giovagnoli (Saint-Marin,SOC) and Andries Gryffroy (Belgique, NI). Nineteen Vice-Presidents are elected annually at the beginning of an ordinary session and remain in office until the opening of the...
30/09/2024 | Session
“Dear Vladimir, let me once again express my utmost relief to see you free, and all the more determined to continue with your fight for the free and democratic Russia which we all long for, and which poses no threat to its neighbours nor to its own citizens”, PACE President said today at the...
30/09/2024 | Elections
“We are deeply concerned by the fact that Transparency International Georgia has been forced to close its election observation operations because of the deplorable decision by the Anti-Corruption Bureau to declare this civil society organisation and its Director as ‘subjects with a declared...
30/09/2024 | Session
PACE, meeting today in plenary session in Strasbourg, congratulated the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) for “its flexible and tailored support to its member states” in the context of the pandemic and natural disasters, and for the rapid assistance to Ukrainian refugees. The Parliamentary...