15/04/2008 | Session
PACE today asked the Council of Europe member states to take joint action with Muslim communities to combat political extremism invoking the name of Islam. In a unanimously adopted resolution, the Assembly called on governments to combat Islamophobia, take action against hate speech and ensure respect for human rights when enforcing anti-terrorist measures.
15/04/2008 | Session
The Assembly today elected four judges to the European Court of Human Rights. They are the following Khanlar Hajiyev, in respect of Azerbaijan; Nebojša Vucinic, in respect of Montenegro; Antonella Mularoni, in respect of San Marino and Boštjan Zupancic in respect of Slovenia. Judges are elected by the Parliamentary Assembly from lists of three candidates nominated by each State which has ratified the European Convention on Human Rights.
15/04/2008 | Session
Discrimination and racism, children’s rights, gender equality, freedom of expression and judicial independence are among the issues which still raise important human rights concerns in member states, the Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammerberg said in delivering his annual report to the Parliamentary Assembly on 15 April.
15/04/2008 | Session
‘New areas of co-operation have been explored with the European Union and existing areas have been consolidated and extended thanks to the Memorandum of Understanding,’ said Jan Kubis, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovakia and Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, addressing today the Parliamentary Assembly.
15/04/2008 | Session
In a speech to the Parliamentary Assembly on 15 April, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called upon the Russian Federation to adopt Protocol 14 to the European Convention of Human Rights. After visiting the Human Rights Court earlier in the day – where she noted that 50,000 applications are examined per year – she stressed that that the Court has now "come to a limit" and must be "properly reformed." She thanked members of the Russian Duma for their lobbying to have Protocol 14 adopted in the Russian Federation.
15/04/2008 | Session
“The Council of Europe is the home of democracy – so, as a leader of one of the countries amongst the strongest defenders of democracy and human rights in the world, you are very much at home here,” President Lluís Maria de Puig said today welcoming German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the PACE spring session. “Your own itinerary, Chancellor, is the perfect illustration of this. I would like to pay tribute to your strong personal engagement in defending human rights. Your presence here today is an honour and a powerful signal. It shows the importance that European and world leaders should attach to human rights,” he stressed.
14/04/2008 | Session
Andros Kyprianou (UEL), a PACE member since June 2006, has been elected its new Vice-President with respect to Cyprus. The 20 Vice-Presidents of PACE chair its debates when the President of the Assembly is not available. They can also be called upon by the President to fulfill certain of his representational obligations.
14/04/2008 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, on fringe of PACE spring session, will hold on 17 April a hearing on “the situation of human rights defenders in Council of Europe member states” as part of the preparation of a report on this subject by Holger Haibach (Germany, EPP/CD). “In some member states, human rights defenders have become the target of multifaceted repression, ranging from direct use of violence to more insidious measures such as administrative obstacles and restrictive laws or defamation campaigns,” said Mr Haibach, pointing out that “very often no investigations are made into these attacks and no proceedings are instituted”.
14/04/2008 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE Political Affairs Committee is to hold a public hearing tomorrow, 17 April, at the initiative of its Chairperson Göran Lindblad (Sweden, EPP/CD), on “the political situation in China on the eve of the Olympic Games”. Participants include a Chinese human rights defender and representatives of the Dalai Lama, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders. The Chinese authorities were also invited but have so far not confirmed their participation.
14/04/2008 | President
“If we attempt to review the major events in Europe since our January part-session, we will see that European unity has been sorely tested. I am thinking in particular of the declaration of independence by the Assembly of Kosovo and the differences that emerged between Council of Europe members at the NATO summit in Bucharest,” PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig said in his opening speech of the Assembly’s spring session. “It is no doubt impossible at this stage to give complete answers to the many questions that have arisen in connection with these two events, and especially the question of whether we are not in fact in the process of creating new divisions in Europe.
14/04/2008 | Session
Slovak President Ivan Gašparovic, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner are among the leading personalities to address the PACE during its spring session in Strasbourg (14-18 April 2008). The final order of business, adopted today by the Assembly, includes an urgent debate on the functioning of democratic institutions in Armenia and a current affairs debate on the consequences of the declaration of independence by the Kosovo Assembly. Topics to be debated include access to safe and legal abortion in Europe and Muslim communities confronted with extremism. On the fringe of the session, the Political Affairs Committee will hold a public hearing on “The situation in China on the eve of the Olympic Games”.
14/04/2008 | Political Affairs and Democracy
In an open letter published today in the official Belarus newspaper Narodnaya Gazeta, Rapporteur on the situation in Belarus Andrea Rigoni appealed to parliamentary leaders to lead the way towards a moratorium on the death penalty in the country.