21/11/2005 | News
On 25 November, the PACE Standing Committee will meet in Bucharest, at the invitation of the Romanian Senate. The meeting will be opened by the President of PACE and the President of the Senate, Nicolae Vacaroiu. The participants will hold an exchange of views with Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Chair of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The Standing Committee, whose meeting will coincide with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, is expected to adopt a declaration on this subject.
21/11/2005 | News
Senior legal advisors from the Parliament of Ukraine today begin a three-day seminar – organised at the initiative of the Assembly’s Secretary General Bruno Haller – on the legal standards of the Council of Europe. Topics to be covered include parliamentary monitoring, the Human Rights Court and Anti-Torture Committee, as well as other Council of Europe treaties, and the work of the Venice Commission and Commissioner for Human Rights. The advisors will also be briefed on the Council’s work against corruption and money-laundering.
21/11/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) will discuss an information memorandum on this subject by Rapporteur Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE) at its meeting in Paris on Tuesday, 22 November. This part of the meeting is not open to the press.
21/11/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Representatives of member states which have not ratified the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the protection of National Minorities (Andorra, Belgium, France, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg, Monaco and Turkey) have been invited to a hearing, organised by the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), in Paris on Tuesday 22 November. The purpose of the hearing is to examine, together with government representatives, experts, NGOs and the Chairperson of the Council of Europe expert committee which drafted the text, how to overcome possible obstacles to the signature or ratification of the Convention.
18/11/2005 | President
In his talks with Romanian Foreign Minister Mihai-Răzvan Ungureanu, PACE President René van der Linden stressed that in order to maintain a coherent and credible set of human rights standards for the whole of Europe, the EU Human Rights Agency’s scope should be limited to the territory of the EU and should not monitor human rights in Council of Europe member States that are not members of the EU. He said he would urge those members of the Committee of Ministers from EU Member States to uphold the decisions taken at the Warsaw Summit, which stress the unique role of the Council of Europe in human rights protection in Europe. In this context, Mr van der Linden pointed out that in deliberations with the Dutch Government about the European proposal to extend the mandate of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) to become a Human Rights Agency, the Dutch Senate has not been convinced of the necessity of this proposal and therefore sent a very clear message to the government to prevent the establishment of the Human Rights Agency.
17/11/2005 | President
Speaking at today’s session of the Council of Europe’s executive body, the Committee of Ministers, the President of the 46-nation Organisation’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) called on all member governments, along with the European Commission, to co-operate fully with the recently designated Assembly rapporteur in charge of examining alleged secret CIA detention centres. “This issue goes to the very heart of the Council of Europe’s human rights mandate,” he said. With regard to the recent widespread outbreaks of violence in France, the President underlined that “the fact that these outbreaks have been echoed in neighbouring countries underlines the European nature of the problem. Many of our countries have culturally and socially alienated communities," he said.
16/11/2005 | President
PACE President René van der Linden today saluted the success of the European flag – shared by both the Council of Europe and the European Union – at a ceremony to mark its fiftieth anniversary. “It was always our intention that the flag become the symbol not only of the Council of Europe, but of any European organisation that shared our values. So when the European Community also adopted the flag, we felt renewed pride rather than any sense of loss,” the President said, pointing out that the flag had originally been a decision of the Assembly. “The flag is a symbol of an open community, united by respect for our fundamental values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.”
16/11/2005 | Monitoring
The head of PACE’s Monitoring Committee György Frunda, during a visit to Moscow, has again called on Russia to abolish the death penalty in law – reminding the authorities that Russia is the only one of the Council of Europe’s 46 member states which has not yet done so. “There have been no executions in Russia for ten years – this is now an accepted fact,” he said. “So why is it so difficult for Russia to ratify Protocol No. 6?” Mr Frunda said he understood that public opinion was against abolition, but pointed out that the same was true for other countries which had taken this step, and called for more public debate on the issue. “The Council of Europe does not blackmail anybody. But every member state has to fulfil its commitments. We have been waiting ten years.”
14/11/2005 | Monitoring
The chairperson of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) monitoring committee, György Frunda (Hungary, EPP/CD), will be in Moscow from 14 to 16 November to discuss prospects for an early ratification of Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights (abolishing the death penalty) with the Russian authorities. Meetings are scheduled with the Commissioner for Human Rights, the Deputy Speaker of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly as well as representatives of the State Duma’s Legal Affairs Committee, the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly, the Administration of the President and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
14/11/2005 | President
Strasbourg, 14.11.2005 – Referring to the recent events in France, Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) President René van der Linden warned of the considerable danger of creating a link between religion and social problems caused by exclusion, unemployment and lack of education. “These events also show that setting up an ’Observatory of urban violence’ is more than ever necessary” said Mr van der Linden, adding that he would propose the idea to the Committee of (Foreign) Ministers meeting in Strasbourg next week. This has already been proposed by the Assembly in order to make best use of national practices.
10/11/2005 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Cevdet Erdol, Président de la Commission de la santé et des affaires sociales de l’Assemblée nationale de Turquie, prononcera le 14 novembre à Istanbul l’allocution d’ouverture de la réunion de la Commission des questions sociales de l’APCE. La commission aura notamment des échanges de vues avec les autorités turques sur le trafic d’organes et sur la grippe aviaire dans le cadre de la préparation de deux rapports sur les sujets.
10/11/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Chair of PACE's Sub-committee on Human Rights, Christos Pourgourides, has appealed to Senegal to extradite former Chadian president Hissène Habré to Belgium to face charges of human rights violations allegedly carried out during his rule in the 1980s. In a letter, Mr Pourgourides pointed out that the Council of Europe has long fought against impunity and supported “universal jurisdiction” – which allows trials in third countries – in cases of serious violations. Mr Habré is wanted by Belgian police for instigating thousands of politically-motivated murders and systematic torture during his eight-year rule as well as organising ethnic violence.