17/05/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
A PACE parliamentary hearing on reported cases of political prisoners in Azerbaijan took place on 17th May 2021. The hearing was organised by PACE’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights in the framework of follow-up to a report by Thorhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC). Participants...
12/05/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for follow-up to Resolution 2362 (2021) on "Restrictions on NGO activities in Council of Europe member States", Alexandra Louis (France, ALDE), has expressed concern over two new draft laws aimed at widening the scope of...
04/05/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Vladimir Vardanyan (Armenia, EPP/CD), General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty, has welcomed the recent pardon of the two brothers Illia and Stanislau Kostseu, who had been on death row. “I am very satisfied with this...
26/03/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Vladimir Vardanyan (Armenia, EPP/CD), General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty, has welcomed the decision of the US state of Virginia to abolish the death penalty, the first of the former “Confederate” states to do so...
23/03/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Council of Europe member States are being urged to use universal jurisdiction and “Magnitsky laws” to bring to justice the perpetrators of serious human rights violations in Belarus during the recent protests and government crackdown, including torture. Approving a report by Alexandra Louis...
03/02/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC), PACE’s rapporteur on political prisoners in the Russian Federation, and Jacques Maire (France, ALDE), rapporteur on the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, Russian opposition politician and anti-corruption campaigner, have today reacted to his sentencing to two years...
26/01/2021 | Session
Despite progress in the implementation of Strasbourg Court judgments and a constant reduction in the number of judgments pending before the Committee of Ministers – from around 10,000 in 2010 to 5 231 at the end of 2019, thanks to the reform following the 2010 Interlaken conference – PACE remains...
20/01/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Vladimir Vardanyan (Armenia, EPP/CD), General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty, has condemned the handing down in Belarus of a death sentence on Viktar Skrundzik for the murder of two elderly people and an attempt to...
20/01/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Vladimir Vardanyan (Armenia, EPP/CD), PACE General Rapporteur on the abolition of the death penalty, expressed his deep regret at the executions at a federal level in the United States of Corey Johnson and Dustin Higgs, respectively on 14 and 16 January. “Whilst I have every sympathy for all...
19/01/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny was the focus of a PACE virtual parliamentary hearing livestreamed today – at which participants were told that Mr Navalny had been tracked by a Russian security service team, which included chemical weapons specialists, prior to his...
15/01/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights is to organise a parliamentary hearing by videoconference on the subject of “the poisoning of Alexei Navalny” on Tuesday 19th January 2021, beginning at around 10.30am Central European Time. Participants in the hearing, organised in the...
14/01/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Vladimir Vardanyan (Armenia, EPP/CD), PACE general rapporteur on the abolition of the death penalty, has expressed his deep regret at Wednesday's execution at a federal level in the United States of Lisa Montgomery. “Whilst I have every sympathy for all those affected by the crime, I am deeply...