20/06/2006 | News
Debates on alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers in Europe, as well as on the balance between freedom of expression and respect for religious beliefs – with the participation of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan – are among highlights of the PACE's summer plenary session, which takes place in Strasbourg from 26 to 30 June 2006. On the morning of Tuesday 27 June Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE) will present his report on “alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member states”. Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini and the European Parliament’s rapporteur on this subject, Giovanni Claudio Fava, will take part in the debate.
20/06/2006 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Erik Jurgens (Netherlands, SOC), rapporteur on the Implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, visited Ukraine on 19 and 20 May. The rapporteur welcomed the recent Law for the execution of the Court’s judgments by Ukraine and encouraged the authorities to resolve the outstanding problems as a matter of priority. The authorities gave the assurances that they recognize the problems that give rise to appeals, many of them repetitive, to the European Court of Human Rights, and are diligently trying to find solutions; by new legislations and by the training of judges.
19/06/2006 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
On the eve of World Refugee Day, Mevlüt Cavusoglu, PACE's Chair of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population released the following statement: “Member states of the Council of Europe must re-examine what are becoming “fortress policies” towards refugees and asylum seekers. The number of refugees in Europe fell by 15 percent last year, according to statistics from UNHCR. While this is in part due to an improvement in conditions in a number of countries of origin of refugees and asylum seekers, it is also due to an increasingly fortress approach by states towards these persons."
16/06/2006 | Session
With effect of 3 June 2006, the Republic of Serbia is continuing the membership of Serbia and Montenegro in the Council of Europe. The Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly, Mateo Sorinas, has sent a letter to the Speaker of the Serbian Parliament inviting him to appoint a delegation, which will be composed of seven representatives and seven substitutes. The request for membership of the Republic of Montenegro in the Council of Europe has been formally transmitted by the organisations’ Committee of Ministers to the Assembly for opinion.
16/06/2006 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Leo Platvoet (Netherlands, UEL), rapporteur on missing persons in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, has warned of the dangers of “politicising” the issue of missing persons. “It is important to treat this issue of missing persons as a humanitarian and human rights matter,” he told a press conference in Baku, following a visit to all three countries, during which he met the families of missing persons.
16/06/2006 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Two Sub-Committees of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development and of the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs took part in the Parliamentary Conference on Energy Cooperation around the Baltic Sea, held in Riga, Latvia, on 16 June 2006. The Conference, organised by the European Energy Forum, brought together members of the PACE, of the EP, representatives of the European Commission, of other international organisations and of the industry.
13/06/2006 | News
Debates on alleged secret detentions, on freedom of expression and respect for religious beliefs – with an address by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan – and on the Assembly’s position towards member and observer states which have not abolished the death penalty are among highlights of PACE’s summer session, in Strasbourg from 26 to 30 June. The UN’s Special Rapporteur on violence against women will also take part in a debate to support the Council of Europe campaign on this subject. The Assembly will decide its final order of business only on the first day of the session.
12/06/2006 | President
"The Guantanamo suicides show once again the terrible damage that is done by unlawful detention in this centre, which exists to side-step normal American justice," PACE President René van der Linden said today. "The circumstances surrounding these sad deaths must be fully investigated, but no investigation can put right the most serious injustice these men have suffered: if they had committed a crime, they should have been charged and tried. Otherwise, as the Assembly urgently demanded more than a year ago, they should have been released." The centre should now be closed for good, he said.
07/06/2006 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly rapporteur Dick Marty today revealed what he called a global “spider’s web” of CIA detentions and transfers and listed seven Council of Europe member states which could be held responsible, in varying degrees, for violations of the rights of named individuals by colluding in these operations. In a 67-page explanatory memorandum to his report, made public in Paris today at a meeting of the Assembly’s Legal Affairs Committee, he said: “It is now clear… that authorities in several European countries actively participated with the CIA in these unlawful activities. Other countries ignored them knowingly, or did not want to know.”
07/06/2006 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The United States has progressively woven a clandestine “spider’s web” of disappearances, secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers – spun with the collaboration or tolerance of Council of Europe member states, PACE's Legal Affairs Committee said today. In a draft resolution adopted at a meeting in Paris, based on a report by Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE), the committee said hundreds of persons had become entrapped in this web. The report will be debated by the plenary Assembly in Strasbourg on 27 June.
07/06/2006 | Election observation
While the parliamentary elections in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on 5 July largely met international standards for democratic elections, violence and intimidation cast a shadow over the campaign, concluded the International Election Observation Mission in a preliminary statement, released today.
02/06/2006 | President
"I welcome the intention of the forthcoming Finnish Presidency of the European Union to make improving EU-Russia relations a priority," said PACE President René van der Linden following meetings with Finnish President Tarja Halonen and Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja in Helsinki. "The European Union has missed opportunities in its relations with Russia in recent years, but the coincidence of Finland’s Presidency of the EU with Russia’s Chairmanship of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers is an excellent opportunity to begin putting this right," said Mr van der Linden, who also met President Putin in Moscow on Monday.