13/12/2006 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The annual meeting of the PACE Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee with the Unicef Innocenti Research Centre was held in Florence on 11 December. It was chaired by Marcel Glesener (Luxembourg, EPP/CD) and commemorated Unicef’s 60th anniversary. Marta Santos Pais, Director of the Innocenti Centre, presented a detailed report on the State of the World’s Children 2007, stressing the links and interaction between children’s rights and women’s rights. If women and mothers had more rights and power in the world, children would be better and more effectively protected, she said.
12/12/2006 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
A hearing, organised by the PACE's Committee on Migration, in Paris on 11 December, dealt with the advantages and draw-backs of regularisation programmes for irregular migrants. According to the rapporteur on the subject, John Greenway (United Kingdom, EDG), "the Council of Europe’s focus is on human rights and the rule of law. It is therefore very disturbing to hear that the rule of law is breached by millions of people being employed in the black economy, illegal employment often linked to organised crime. Our member states should be concerned about the breaches of law and the consequent breaches of human rights. Breaking this cycle of breaches of law and human rights would be beneficial for every country in Europe and this is what we have to strive for".
12/12/2006 | Political Affairs and Democracy
The rapporteur of the PACE’s Political Affairs Committee on the accession of the Republic of Montenegro to the Council of Europe, Jean-Charles Gardetto (Monaco, EPP/CD), said at the last meeting of the committee on 11 December that he could not give an opinion until more headway had been made in Montenegro on the constitution. The rapporteurs for opinion of the Legal Affairs Committee, Erik Jurgens (Netherlands, SOC), and the Monitoring Committee, Serhiy Holovaty (Ukraine, ALDE), share this view. The report will not be examined therefore at the next plenary session of the PACE (22-26 January 2007).
08/12/2006 | Prizes
The Council of Europe Museum Prize for 2007 has been awarded to the International Museum of the Reformation, Geneva. Housed on the spot where the people of Geneva voted to adopt Reformation in 1536, the museum features displays on the Bible, the work of Calvin, religious controversy with other Christian traditions, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Protestant resistance to fascism, missionary work and the role of women in the ministry.
08/12/2006 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
A hearing, organised by the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population of the PACE, in Paris on 11 December will deal with the advantages and draw-backs of regularisation programmes for irregular migrants, taking into account the different experiences in Europe to date – Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Portugal. The hearing will bring together experts from countries having already conducted regularisation programmes and parliamentarians from the Council of Europe’s 46 member states.
08/12/2006 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee of the PACE will be holding a joint meeting with UNICEF at the Innocenti Research Centre in Florence on 11 December on the subject of children’s rights. The meeting will also provide the opportunity to celebrate UNICEF’s 60th anniversary. The Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, and the Director of the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Marta Santos Pais, will address the participants at the opening of the meeting.
06/12/2006 | Monitoring
Tony Lloyd (United Kingdom, SOC), PACE co-rapporteur for the monitoring of Azerbaijan, has called for the TV station ANS to be put back on the air while the “technical issues” surrounding its license are solved. In an interview with the BBC World Service, Mr Lloyd said it was “not in the interest of anyone in Azerbaijan” to have the station – with a reputation as one of the country’s most independent – silenced, and pointed out that Azerbaijan had made a commitment not to use administrative measures to shut down media.
04/12/2006 | News
PACE today expressed its concern that between 30 000 and 60 000 women might be the object of trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation at the forthcoming Football World Cup in Germany and asked FIFA to firmly condemn trafficking in women. “In its capacity as World Cup organiser, FIFA must also assume its responsibility to condemn the exploitation of women, which sometimes, highly regrettably, accompanies the holding of sports events, and therefore to denounce any activities that threaten human rights.”
30/11/2006 | President
"Fighting HIV/AIDS is not just about finding health solutions, but also about ending prejudice," said PACE President René van der Linden in a statement released on the eve of World AIDS Day. "Too many people still see this as a disease for ‘others’ and ‘foreigners’, leading to discrimination and stigma. This must change – not just because of the injustice to sufferers, but also because it hampers the effectiveness of our response." PACE is due to debate three reports on HIV/AIDS at its January session.
30/11/2006 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE’s Economic Affairs Committee yesterday called for the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers to take a vote on the Organisation’s 2007 budget if no compromise can be reached between divergent positions. "In order to allow the Council of Europe to continue to function normally in 2007… the Committee of Ministers must now face up to its responsibilities," the committee said in a statement, failing which it would demand an urgent debate at the Assembly’s January plenary session. The committee urged government representatives to "do more to facilitate, rather than hamper by its foot-dragging attitude year after year, the work of the Council of Europe".
29/11/2006 | President
At the end of his two-day visit (29-30 November) to Berlin, PACE President René van der Linden announced that he had extended an invitation to Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel to address the Parliamentary Assembly at one of its forthcoming sessions. He said he very much welcomed Mrs Merkel’s constructive stance on the core issues of the Council of Europe – human rights, democracy and the rule of law - especially during her visits abroad.
29/11/2006 | Monitoring
Russia is right to ask for "respect and responsibility" from Georgia and should show exactly the same attitude towards its neighbour country, said PACE rapporteurs Luc van den Brande (Belgium, EPP/CD) and Matyas Eörsi (Hungary, ALDE), speaking at the end of a three-day visit to Moscow to discuss current tensions between the two countries. "Present relations between Georgia and Russia are too heavily charged with negative emotions and are not worthy of the long historic, cultural and personal ties between the people of the two countries," the co-rapporteurs said. They called on politicians to "stop exchanging verbal provocations and show the same wisdom as their societies". Both men earlier visited Tbilisi.