16/09/2005 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Meeting today in Paris, the Committee on Social, Health and Family Affairs decided, following a lively debate, to continue work on the report "Surrogacy as an alternative to sterility" drawn up by Michael Hancock (United Kingdom, ALDE). So as to allow its members time to propose amendments, the committee intends to adopt the preliminary draft resolution at its next meeting in Paris on 16 December.
14/09/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The three candidates for the post of Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights – Thomas Hammarberg (Sweden), Marek Antoni Nowicki (Poland) and Marc Verwilghen (Belgium) – were interviewed by a panel of European parliamentarians on 15 September 2005 in Paris. The panel – the Human Rights Sub-committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s Legal Affairs Committee – will then make confidential recommendations to members of the Assembly, which is due to elect a new Commissioner on 4 and 5 October 2005 during its plenary session.
14/09/2005 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
At a hearing on men's involvement in equality projects that took place in Reykjavik on 13 September, the Icelandic Social Affairs Minister, Arni Magnusson, underlined the importance of "men taking action, hand in hand with the women, to make the necessary effort to create a just society for our daughters as well as our sons". Iceland is the country which first elected a woman as a president in general democratic elections, Vigdis Finnbogadottir, who stayed President for 16 years.
14/09/2005 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
Anne Brasseur (Luxembourg, ALDE), PACE’s rapporteur on cultural diversity in the Northern Caucasus, today met the Mayor of Beslan and the President of the Committee of Beslan Mothers. Speaking after the meeting, which she described as a moving one, Mrs Brasseur said she had told the mothers’ representatives: “Your struggle is in defence of respect for human rights and tolerance. These are the values of the Council of Europe.” Mrs Brasseur is meeting religious and cultural leaders in the Republics of North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan during a week-long visit.
13/09/2005 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
The First Euro-Asian Parliamentary Forum on Migration, jointly organised by the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Migration Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), is to take place in Almaty, Kazakhstan, from 15 to 17 September 2005. The forum will bring together parliamentarians from the Council of Europe, Kazakhstan and other central Asian republics such as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan with migration experts.
13/09/2005 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Parliamentarians from 46 countries joined senior officials from the OECD, the World Bank and the EBRD as well as European Trade Union representatives to discuss the pros and cons of “outsourcing” – the practice of companies in wealthier countries moving their production to low-wage, less regulated economies – at a public hearing in Paris on 14th September. The conclusions of the hearing, organised by the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development of the PACE, form part of a report being prepared by Neven Mimica (Croatia, SOC).
13/09/2005 | Political Affairs and Democracy
After a discussion of the draft report on "The need for international condemnation of the crimes of communism" (Göran Lindblad, Sweden, EPP/CD) in Paris today, the Political Affairs Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) decided to postpone the adoption of the draft recommendation and resolution to a future meeting. The President of the Committee will therefore ask the PACE Bureau to withdraw this item from the draft order of business for the October session (Strasbourg, 3-7 October). Considering that the report on "The condemnation of the admiration and justification of nazism" (Mikhail Margelov, Russia, EDG) should be debated at the same time as the report presented by Mr Lindblad, the Political Affairs Committee decided to postpone the adoption of the draft resolution of Mr Margelov's report.
12/09/2005 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
Anne Brasseur (Luxembourg, ADLE), who is preparing a report on cultural diversity in the Northern Caucasus for the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), is to visit the region from 11 to 17 September 2005. Speaking on the eve of the visit, she said: “The North Caucasus region of Russia has an immense wealth of cultural diversity, its peoples speak some forty languages and belong to six religions. Much of the violence and political instability in the region can be attributed to the systematic neglect of education and the absence of inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue. The purpose of my visit is to see what we can do to develop this dialogue.”
12/09/2005 | President
Ways of promoting democracy and human rights in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, the situation in Belarus, the possible use of Council of Europe expertise in Iraq and the fight against terrorism – including the need to adhere to international human rights and humanitarian law – were among subjects discussed with US authorities by René van der Linden during a visit to the United States from 6 to 9 September 2005. In Washington, he met with Mr Alcee L. Hastings, President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and US Congressman, to discuss co-operation between the two Assemblies, in particular as regards the observation of elections. He also met with Mr Glyn Davies, the Acting Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and Ambassador Daniel Fried, Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs. Discussions centred on US policy, as well as the situation in Belarus and in the southern Caucasus. The President invited the US Secretary of State, Mrs Condoleezza Rice, to address the PACE.
09/09/2005 | President
The President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), René van der Linden, today expressed his concern at recent statements by the UK Home Secretary, Charles Clarke. Mr Clarke, speaking of the possibility of the European Court of Human Rights finding UK anti-terrorism legislation to be in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, had appeared to suggest that such a judgment could lead to a reconsideration of whether or not the UK should remain party to the Convention, since it would contradict the 'consensus' on how rights should be defended. “The European Convention on Human Rights is the heart and foundation of the Council of Europe's human rights protection system,” said Mr van der Linden. “Its effectiveness depends upon its Court, the first international judicial mechanism for human rights protection in the world and a crowning achievement of civilised values. I find it very alarming that a politician may be making statements that could have the effect of undermining the judicial independence of that Court, by stating in advance that an undesired judgment might have negative political consequences.”
08/09/2005 | President
"Greater involvement of parliaments in the work of the United Nations would increase our world organisation’s legitimacy, improve its visibility and enable more effective follow up to decisions taken," PACE President René van der Linden said today in his speech before the 2nd World Conference of Speakers of Parliament in New York. "Of course, the IPU will have a key role to play in the establishment of such a UN parliamentary dimension. Moreover, a global organisation addressing global issues should not overlook the regional dimension: the principle of subsidiarity should not only apply to governmental work but also to parliamentary activities. Regional parliamentary assemblies are essential to ensure that the future UN parliamentary dimension receives direct input on regional-specific issues. As regards follow-up, we shall discuss the proposals made here in our Parliamentary Assembly: a genuine parliamentary body covering the entire European continent. We will also strongly promote their debate in our 46 member parliaments," he said.
07/09/2005 | Bureau
The honouring of obligations and commitments by Ukraine and a debate on forced marriages and child marriages are among items provisionally scheduled for debate at the Parliamentary Assembly’s autumn session (3-7 October 2005). Invited speakers include Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, who will speak on the same day as debates on women and religion and on education and religion, and Volodymyr Lytvyn, Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament. Other reports on the draft order of business include the treatment of Bulgarian medical staff in Libya and language problems in access to public health care in the Brussels-Capital region. The Assembly itself will decide its own final order of business only on the first day of the session.