11/04/2006 | News
The Assembly is horrified and appalled by the situation of servicemen in some member states’ armies, who are subjected to abuse, brutality, institutionalised bullying, violence, ill-treatment and torture in, for example, the “initiation ordeals” (dedovshchina) which remain common practice in some member States. Following the proposals by the rapporteur (Alexander Arabadjiev, Bulgaria, SOC) the parliamentarians called for urgent measures to put an end to this scandalous situation, including a "zero tolerance" approach from member states.
11/04/2006 | News
The Assembly today urged states to do more to help prisoners lead socially responsible lives both in prison and when they are released, including giving them opportunities to learn new skills or study, receive visits from their families, keep up with events in the outside world and take part in sport. Approving a report by Ali Riza Gülcicek (Turkey, SOC), the Assembly also called for conditional releases, prison leave and day-releases to help long-term prisoners readjust to freedom.
10/04/2006 | News
The Assembly is to hold two urgent debates during its Spring session – one on the “Belarus: in the aftermath of the Presidential election of 19 March 2006”, on Thursday morning, and the other entitled “stop trafficking in women before the FIFA World Cup”, to be discussed on Wednesday morning. The parliamentarians were approving the final order of business on the opening day of the session.
10/04/2006 | News
PACE today encouraged young Europeans to learn their mother tongue when this is not an official language of their country, while underlining that every young European has “the duty to learn an official language of the country of which he or she is a citizen”. The adopted text, based on the report prepared by Jacques Legendre (France, EPP/CD), states that types of education based on the mother tongue significantly increase the chances of educational success and give better results. “Bilingual education based on the mother tongue is the basis for long-term success”, the Assembly said.
10/04/2006 | News
The draft memorandum of understanding between the Council of Europe and the EU, prepared by the EU and discussed in March, “is without real, concrete proposals and does not respond to the political requirements of the Assembly or the Warsaw Summit”, PACE President René van der Linden said today. Addressing parliamentarians on the first day of the session, he regretted that the Assembly had not been involved in discussions on the draft, and stressed that no decisions on Council-EU relations should be taken until the report by Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, due tomorrow, had been fully taken into account. The Assembly will debate the memorandum on Thursday.
10/04/2006 | News
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today elected Giorgi Bokeria (Georgia, ALDE) as Vice-President with respect to Georgia.
10/04/2006 | News
Thomas Hammarberg, the new Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights who took up his duties on 1 April, said in his speech before the PACE that “the time has come to move on from rhetoric to reform, genuine reforms”. He added, “we will act as a watchdog to ensure that human rights are indeed respected”. He also said that he was looking forward to working with parliamentarians from member states in order to secure a higher level of human rights protection in all countries.
10/04/2006 | News
The Assembly today called for greater efforts to fight corruption in member states, pointing out this would also reduce poverty. It called for measures including more transparency and financial accountability, ensuring that public officials are adequately paid and supported, giving fiscal autonomy to local and regional authorities, guaranteeing an independent media and organising better training for judges and law enforcement officials. “Fighting corruption is not just a moral issue,” said rapporteur Alain Cousin (France, EPP/CD), “it is also an effective means of combating poverty.”
07/04/2006 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
“It is imperative that Strasbourg Court judgments are complied with,” said Erik Jurgens (Netherlands, SOC), rapporteur on the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, at the end of a visit to Turkey (5-7 April 2006). But he added that he had received assurances from the Turkish authorities that all implementation issues were being addressed “as a matter of priority”. Judgments discussed concerned abuses by members of the security forces, unjustified interference with the freedom of expression and the dissolution of political parties, among others, as well as outstanding issues in the implementation of the Cyprus v. Turkey judgment.
07/04/2006 | Monitoring
“The need for political stability and economic prosperity of Russia are no alternatives to the need to further develop democracy and human rights, both should go hand in hand,” PACE’s newly-appointed co-rapporteurs said at the end of their first visit to the country from 3 to 5 April 2006. In a press statement, Luc Van den Brande (Belgium, EPP/CD) and Theodoros Pangalos (Greece, SOC) said Russia should set a “personal example” to other member states when it takes over the six-month Chairmanship of the organisation in May.
06/04/2006 | Monitoring
The Assembly’s co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Albania completed a three-day visit to the country today during which they met senior figures in the government, parliament and judiciary to update their assessment of Albania’s progress in fulfilling its commitments to the Council of Europe. Items discussed included the functioning of democratic institutions, electoral reform, the fight against corruption and organised crime, the functioning of the judiciary, implementation of legislation and local self-government as well as human rights issues such as freedom of the media and minority rights.
04/04/2006 | Session
Relations between the Council of Europe and the European Union will be a major theme of PACE's Spring session, which takes place in Strasbourg from 10 to 13 April 2006. The Assembly will be addressed on Tuesday by Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who will present his report on this subject, Romanian Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, representing the chairmanship of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, the Federal Chancellor of Austria Wolfgang Schüssel, President of the Council of the European Union, and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso.