19/11/2007 | President
Addressing a conference organised in Aachen by the Parliamentary Assembly and the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia, PACE President René van der Linden today announced the inauguration in 2008 of a European Day for Integration and Intercultural Tolerance as a part of PACE’s contribution to the European Year of Inter-cultural Dialogue. “This will be a clear and visible sign of our shared commitment to making this goal a top political priority for Europe”, PACE President said. The two day conference, mainly concerned with encouraging respect between religions, will be considering how migrants and receiving societies can improve intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding.
14/11/2007 | President
“I welcome today’s announcement by the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament that the state of emergency in Georgia is to be lifted on Friday, as we had urged,” said PACE President René van der Linden. “I sincerely hope that this will place Georgia back on the normal democratic path that its people deserve. Furthermore, I call on the authorities to ensure that the forthcoming elections are carried out in full conformity with the democratic standards of the Council of Europe.” PACE’s co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Georgia, Matyas Eörsi (Hungary, ALDE) and Kastriot Islami (Albania, SOC), made a snap visit to the country last week.
13/11/2007 | Monitoring
As part of the monitoring procedure on the honouring of Montenegro’s obligations and commitments, Jean-Charles Gardetto (Monaco, EPP/CD) and Serhiy Holovaty (Ukraine, ALDE), PACE co-rapporteurs of the Monitoring Committee, will be paying a fact-finding visit to Podgorica from 14 to 16 November. As this will be the committee’s first visit to Montenegro since its accession, the aim is to establish contact with the authorities in order to explain the monitoring procedure and consider the timetable for implementing the commitments.
13/11/2007 | Political Affairs and Democracy
“Truth commissions may be an effective mechanism for addressing past human rights violations, thus bringing reconciliation to a society emerging from a difficult past. In the case of the Chechen Republic, a Truth Commission could be one way of meeting the need to deal with the legacy of the conflict in this region, to reconstitute the history of abuses committed, and of violence and injustices suffered, by all sides involved,” according to a report by Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC), adopted today in Paris by PACE Political Affairs Committee.
12/11/2007 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The procedures used by the UN Security Council and the European Union for blacklisting individuals and groups suspected of links with terrorists are “totally arbitrary and have no credibility whatsoever”, according to PACE's Legal Affairs Committee, which today approved a report by Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE). These procedures, which are "unworthy" of the UN and EU, must urgently be overhauled to make them fairer, the parliamentarians said. The report is due to be debated by PACE at its January session.
10/11/2007 | Monitoring
Matyas Eörsi (Hungary, ALDE) and Kastriot Islami (Albania, SOC), co-rapporteurs for Georgia of the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), today expressed their conviction that it is in the interest of Georgia to lift the state of emergency as quickly as possible. The co-rapporteurs called upon the Georgian government to fully restore the normal democratic processes and functioning of the institutions. They reminded the Georgian authorities to strictly abide by the principles of the rule of law in all its actions and to comply with the provisions of the European Convention of Human Rights, especially for the freedom of expression, information and association.
09/11/2007 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE rapporteur Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE) is to present a report on whether individuals and groups “blacklisted” by the UN Security Council and the European Union for their links to terrorism are treated in line with Council of Europe human rights standards. The report is due to be discussed by PACE's Legal Affairs Committee at a meeting in Paris on Monday 12 November 2007.
09/11/2007 | Election observation
At the end of a three-day mission ahead of the observation of Russia’s 2 December parliamentary elections, a nine-member PACE delegation has noted the climate of political stability and economic growth in the Russian Federation, but said this should go "hand in hand" with strengthening democracy. "I am confident that the upcoming elections to the Russian Duma will be free," said delegation head Luc Van den Brande. "However it is also essential for the elections to be fair, and this calls for the creation of a level playing field for all political stakeholders." The delegation also criticised the restrictions on international observers.
08/11/2007 | Monitoring
Following the declaration of a nationwide state of emergency by Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili, Matyas Eorsi (Hungary, ALDE) and Kastriot Islami (Albania, SOC), co-rapporteurs for Georgia of PACE Monitoring Committee will make a snap visit to Tbilisi from Friday 9 to Sunday 11 November to assess the situation on the spot.
08/11/2007 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
“The point of international adoption is to enable a child to find parents, with respect for his or her rights, not to satisfy the parent’s wish to have a child at all costs: there is no such thing as the right to a child!” This was the conclusion reached today by Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold (Switzerland, SOC), speaking on behalf of PACE Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee, at a meeting of the committee in Paris. In her report, which is based on fact-finding visits to Ukraine and Moldova, Mrs Vermot-Mangold firmly condemns the increasing use of alternative circuits that can encourage the disappearance of newborn babies for illegal adoption in Europe.
07/11/2007 | President
PACE President René van der Linden today called for calm and a balanced response from the Italian government, following its steps to crackdown on Romanian migrants. "The arrest of a Romanian murder suspect should not ... lead to a witch-hunt of Romanians," he said. "The Italian Government may well have the right to expel a number of persons on public safety grounds, but all decisions must be subject to judicial review and taken on an individual basis rather than collectively."
06/11/2007 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE is well-placed as a platform for discussing different experiences of conflict-settlement, parliamentarians agreed at the end of a two-day hearing on "frozen conflicts" in Berlin (5-6 November). The hearing brought together experts and government representatives from the countries concerned by the conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria.