20/03/2006 | President
PACE President René van der Linden today expressed his bitter disappointment that the Assembly’s repeated calls for the Belarusian authorities to ensure free and fair presidential elections had gone unheeded. “As we feared, the OSCE’s preliminary findings have concluded that the election did not meet international standards,” said Mr van der Linden. “Through a combination of manipulative influence by the administration, a lack of freedom of expression and information, unequal access to campaigning opportunities, state control of the mass media, the frequently violent harassment of opposition candidates and supporters and an election administration that lacked independence, the Belarusian people were not permitted to choose their president through free expression of their political will.”
17/03/2006 | Standing Committee
The Parliamentary Assembly has strongly condemned the extensive and wide-ranging human rights abuses committed by the Franco regime in Spain from 1939 to 1975. In a recommendation adopted unanimously, the Standing Committee – which acts in the name of the Assembly between plenary sessions – called on the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers to adopt a similar declaration at international level and to designate the 18 July 2006 as an official day of condemnation of the Franco regime. The report, by Leo Brincat (Malta, SOC), lists executions, torture and political prisoners as among abuses committed by the regime.
17/03/2006 | News
The Parliamentary Assembly has called for the preservation and development of Europe’s mining sites for cultural and environmental purposes as well as tourism and small businesses. “Without coalmining, Europe would never have played its part in the world,” said the Assembly’s Standing Committee in a resolution. Presenting the report, Jacques Legendre (France, EPP/CD) dedicated it to the memory of those who died in the mining disaster in Courrières, which took place exactly 100 years ago. The report, by Jean-Pierre Kucheida (France, SOC), also calls for the training of men and women from coalmining areas, solidarity with victims of mining accidents and further study of the “exemplary” social structures inherited from mining.
17/03/2006 | News
At a debate of the PACE Standing Committee today in Paris on a dynamic housing policy as an element of European social cohesion, rapporteur Denis Jacquat (France, EPP/CD) stressed that the right to housing as a fundamental social right secured in the revised Social Charter of the Council of Europe is the prime foundation for housing policies. "The Assembly must condemn once more the discriminatory practices, whether active or passive, that particularly affect Roma and families of African origin in certain Council of Europe member countries,“ said Mr Jacquat..
17/03/2006 | News
"Freedom of expression is not negotiable, a view that is shared Europe-wide. But while that freedom is not open to negotiation, it has never been synonymous with a right to insult the faith of others or to slander their belief", according to Jacques Legendre (France, EPP/CD), speaking at the opening of today's current affairs debate on freedom of expression and respect for religious beliefs, organised on the occasion of the meeting of the Standing Committee of the PACE. "And that freedom, if it is to be humanistic and respectful, must allow for the fact that the faith of a believer is absolute, and that true suffering may result if that absolute is denied or caricatured", Mr Legendre continued.
16/03/2006 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE's Sub-Committee on the Middle East has unanimously agreed to invite a delegation of the Palestinian Legislative Council, including a member of Hamas, to its next meeting which will be held during the April part-session (10-13 April 2006). "We cannot ignore the legitimate outcome of the parliamentary elections which took place on 25 January 2006," said the Sub-Committee’s Chairperson Stef Goris (Belgium, ADLE). "We all agree that the elections were fair and free. Therefore, we have to accept the democratically expressed will of the Palestinian people and do our best to involve those who won the elections in the political dialogue which could contribute to the peaceful settlement of the conflict."
14/03/2006 | Standing Committee
Following the controversy over the caricatures recently published in Denmark and the violent reactions in a number of countries, the Standing Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) is poised to hold a debate (*) on the subject at its meeting on 17 March in Paris. In the view of PACE President René van der Linden, who will open the meeting at 9.30 am, "there cannot be a democratic society without the fundamental right to freedom of expression and information, but freedom of thought, conscience and religion constitutes one of the essential freedoms of individuals".
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.