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.
02/06/2006 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE rapporteur Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE) will present his report on alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers involving Council of Europe member states to the Legal Affairs Committee in Paris on Wednesday 7 June. The report is scheduled for debate during the plenary session of the 630-member Assembly in Strasbourg on Tuesday 27 June 2006.
02/06/2006 | Monitoring
At a meeting to be held in Paris on Tuesday 6 June, the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will be holding an exchange of views with the Presidents of the parliaments of the State Union and Serbian (to be confirmed) and Montenegrin, on the consequences of the referendum in Montenegro. The co-rapporteurs, Milos Budin (Italy, SOC) and Charles Goerens (Luxembourg, ALDE) will be present.
02/06/2006 | News
“Indeed, many European Muslim communities have already expressed their determination to take steps to prevent or combat extremism. The Council of Europe member states have, for their part, taken numerous measures to try to prevent extremist tendencies from emerging or gaining ground”, PACE rapporteur on European Muslim communities confronted with extremism, Daniel Goulet (France, ALDE) said at the end of the Hearing on this issue organised in Paris today.