01/02/2007 | President
Speaking at the third World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris, PACE President René van der Linden welcomed the highly symbolic step taken by the Assemblée Nationale, to inscribe abolition of the death penalty in the French Constitution. He announced that the PACE Standing Committee, meeting in Paris on 16 March, will hold a debate to support Italy's initiative in the United Nations to abolish the death penalty worldwide.
30/01/2007 | President
PACE President René van der Linden will give an opening speech at the 3rd World Congress against the Death Penalty (1st February, Paris), which he will attend along with the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg and Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis. PACE’s longstanding rapporteur on the death penalty, Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD), will also take part in a Round Table on “From moratorium to abolition” (2 February, 1-3pm).
26/01/2007 | President
On the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly, the Secretary General and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe made the following joint statement : “No child is born a racist, and it is the task of all of us to make sure that no child becomes one. The fight against racism and xenophobia must not be limited to one day a year. We have the responsibility to fight hate and prejudice all the time and everywhere, in schools, in the workplace and in the street."
26/01/2007 | Session
Responding to European citizens wish to reduce industrial and technological risks to the minimum, PACE called for an agreement that would minimize risks without unduly restricting research and innovation. The parliamentarians asked the public authorities to respect freedom of research allowing responsible risk-taking yet encouraging a culture of precaution. To that end, the Assembly addressed a list of recommendations to member States governments, the academic world, research institutions and industry.
26/01/2007 | News
The Council of Europe should encourage a process of “responsible food consumption” by boosting partnerships of solidarity between producers and consumers, and encouraging young people to develop an ethos of responsible food consumption, PACE said in a resolution. In the long run, it hopes synergies will develop between government, businesses and citizens which will help to sustain a whole new culture of socially-responsible eating.
26/01/2007 | Bureau
PACE Bureau, meeting in Strasbourg, has approved the following statement: “The Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe shares the deep shock expressed by its President, René van der Linden, when the death sentence was once again served on the Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor by a Libyan Court on 19 December 2006. This sentence is all the more outrageous because it results from a re-trial of the nurses and doctor – accused of deliberately infecting some 426 children with HIV – which was just as flawed as the original trial, struck down in December 2005 by the Supreme Court."
25/01/2007 | Monitoring
Continual confrontation in Ukraine is frustrating hopes for a political consensus in making strategic decisions or stepping up the badly-needed reform process, PACE’s monitoring co-rapporteurs have warned. In an information note, Hanne Severinsen (Denmark, ALDE) and Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD) regretted the "incessant tug-of-war" between President Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yanukovich, and said the "promises of the Maidan" had not been met. They called on Ukraine to resolve its constitutional crisis in order to move ahead with serious reform.
25/01/2007 | News
While underlining the importance of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights for the protection of media freedom throughout Europe, the PACE called for additional measures for effectively protecting the lives and freedom of expression of journalists. Following the proposals by the rapporteur (Andrew McIntosh, United Kingdom, SOC), the Assembly called on all parliaments concerned “to conduct parliamentary investigations into the unresolved murders of journalists as well as attacks and death threats against them, in order to shed light on individual cases and develop as a matter of urgency effective policies for the greater safety of journalists”.
25/01/2007 | News
That Protocol 14 needs bringing into force as a guarantee of a better functioning European Court of Human Rights was the conclusion reached by PACE's current affairs debate. That is prevented by the recent non-ratification by the State Duma of the Council of the Russian Federation since the Protocol cannot take effect until all the member states have ratified it. The debate was requested by Dick Marty (Suisse, ALDE) in his capacity as Chair of the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights. Its aim, he said, was not to point the finger but to think about what could be done, and he was open to dialogue with the Duma Legal Committee because he was convinced that dialogue could put right various misunderstandings. “We have a responsibility to future generations to safeguard the independence of the European Court of Human Rights,” he concluded.
25/01/2007 | News
European governments are still not doing enough to protect people affected by HIV/AIDS from discrimination, the Assembly said following a joint debate. It called for special measures to protect children and young women, including empowering young women through information and awareness-raising, and demanded high-quality medical services, research into new treatments, a ban on compulsory HIV/AIDS screening and the criminalising of the wilful transmission of the disease.
25/01/2007 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Parliamentary delegations from Armenia and Azerbaijan, meeting on the fringe of PACE's plenary session, have decided to begin a regular face-to-face dialogue on issues surrounding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, with the support of the Assembly’s rapporteurs on these issues. They also agreed in principle to make a joint visit to the region in the near future, during which they would also meet with the displaced population, and agreed on the need to prepare their societies for any possible solution to the conflict.
25/01/2007 | News
While welcoming progress made, the Assembly decided to pursue its monitoring until measures taken or planned in the fields of election legislation, local and regional government, the fight against corruption, domestic violence and trafficking in human beings, the judiciary and electronic media, the prevention of torture and respect of minority and children’s rights have produced tangible results. The parliamentarians praised the open and constructive policy which Albania has maintained towards Kosovo, but regretted that Albanian political life has continued to be dominated by confrontation and obstructionism.