13/03/2006 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
"Members of the armed forces cannot be expected to respect humanitarian law and human rights in their operations unless respect for human rights is guaranteed within the army ranks," PACE's rapporteur on the human rights of members of the armed forces, Alexander Arabadjiev (Bulgaria, SOC), said at today's adoption of his report during a meeting of the Legal Affairs Committee in Paris. In his report Mr Arabadjiev underlines that members of the armed forces are citizens in uniform who must enjoy the same fundamental liberties as other citizens, including those set out in the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Social Charter.
11/03/2006 | President
Reacting to the death of Slobodan Milosevic, PACE President René van der Linden today declared: "Unfortunately, the sudden death of Slovodan Milosevic prevents the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia from reaching a conclusion in this case. Therefore, the victims of the terrible wars in the Balkans won't see justice being delivered. However, it is now more urgent than ever that other war crimes suspects be brought to justice as soon as possible".
10/03/2006 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The first progress report by a human rights committee of the British Parliament into the United Kingdom’s implementation of Strasbourg judgments, published this week, has been hailed by the Assembly’s rapporteur on the subject as “a model to be followed by other parliamentary bodies”. Erik Jurgen (Netherlands, SOC) was speaking at the end of a visit to the United Kingdom to discuss outstanding issues related to the UK’s implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. This was the first of a series of visits that will later take him to Italy, Turkey, the Russian Federation and Ukraine.
10/03/2006 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
Parliamentarians, experts and NGO representatives meeting in Paris today for a hearing on the feminisation of poverty, concluded that extreme poverty may lead to every form of violence against women. Participants at the hearing, organised by the PACE Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men stressed that women, often belittled, in parlous financial circumstances who want to leave their home countries in search of a better future, become easy victims for people traffickers. “Although the figures for poverty incidence are not broken down according to gender, women irrefutably represent a larger proportion than men of the population in poverty. Being female is a risk in itself,” said rapporteur Gaby Vermot-Mangold (Switzerland, SOC).
10/03/2006 | News
Seriously concerned that the debate within the Committee of Ministers concerning the Council of Europe's budget for 2007 is at a standstill, the Assembly today held a current affairs debate on the subject. Opening the discussion, Paul Wille (Belgium, ADLE) called on the Committee of Ministers to approve without delay the priorities for the draft budget and the programme of activities for 2007, as proposed by the Secretary General.
09/03/2006 | President
René van der Linden, President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), today condemned actions aimed at creating a climate of intimidation by the Lukashenko regime against opposition candidates ahead of the presidential election in Belarus, following the arrest and trial of Vincuk Viachorka, Chair of the Belarusian Popular National Front Party and an aide of presidential candidate Alexander Milinkevich.
09/03/2006 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
The PACE Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men meeting today in Paris, decided to submit a request for an urgent debate with the title "stop trafficking in women before the World Cup" to be held during the PACE spring session in Strasbourg (11-14 April).
08/03/2006 | Monitoring
Charles Goerens (Luxembourg, ALDE) was today appointed as new co-rapporteur alongside Milos Budin (Italy, SOC) for the monitoring of the obligations and commitments of Serbia and Montenegro by the Monitoring Committee.
07/03/2006 | News
With a view to tomorrow’s International Women’s Day, PACE President René van der Linden today urged the organisation’s member states as well as the European Community to adhere to the Convention on action against trafficking in human beings. “Whilst fully supporting all current initiatives for a ‘red card to forced prostitution’, I hope we can avoid yellow cards for our member states for not having taken the necessary legal action to prevent trafficking in general, and forced prostitution in particular,” he said.
02/03/2006 | Election observation
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) pre-electoral mission that visited Ukraine from 28 February to 2 March 2006 today welcomed the vastly improved atmosphere in which the electoral campaign and the preparations for the forthcoming parliamentary elections are taking place. Almost all interlocutors met by the delegation expressed their confidence in the election process up to now and their expectation that these elections would be conducted in accordance with universally accepted democratic standards. This is a marked improvement in comparison to the last Presidential elections.
23/02/2006 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The enquiries being conducted by the Council of Europe and the European Parliament into alleged illegal transport and detention in Europe should not be considered as "enquêtes de condamnation" but should be aimed at defending the fundamental rights, values and freedoms upon which the European institutions are based, PACE rapporteur Dick Marty and EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini have agreed following a meeting in Brussels. In a joint statement, they stressed that the full co-operation of both EU and Council of Europe member states was vital to establish the truth. Later Mr Marty also presented his interim assessment to a temporary committee of MEPs.
23/02/2006 | President
René van der Linden, the President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), today called for an end to the isolation of the Belarusian people and proposed the opening of a Council of Europe office in Minsk. “We need to break the isolation of the Belarusian people. We must strengthen direct contacts with Belarusian democratic forces and civil society. We need to reinforce our presence in Belarus. Our Assembly has suggested establishing a Council of Europe Information Centre in the country. I think that this initiative is of fundamental importance to enable us to reach the people of Belarus,” Mr van der Linden said in a speech.