21/06/2005 | News
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today urged the Palestinian Authority to abolish the death penalty within two years, and decided to support Palestinian legislators in their endeavours to reinstitute a moratorium on executions. Adopting a resolution on the situation in the Middle East on the second day of its plenary session in Strasbourg, PACE strongly condemned the executions of four detainees on 12 June 2005 and said it was “appalled” by the decision of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to end the moratorium on executions decided by his predecessor in 2002.
21/06/2005 | News
While recalling that since 1993 between 350 and 500 women have been brutally murdered in the northern Mexican border State of Chihuahua, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) today called on upon the Mexican Congress “to complete the envisaged constitutional and legislative reforms to fight past or future impunity for such grave human rights violations” and to ensure that prosecutors efficiently, rapidly and transparently investigate every case of “feminicide”. The adopted text underlines that despite a clearly discernible political will, a general commitment and the efforts by the state and federal authorities, “too many cases remain unsolved and too many victims unidentified. It is urgent to move from audit to action in order to end the climate of impunity for gender-based violence still prevalent in the region.”
20/06/2005 | News
The members of PACE’s Committee on Culture, Science and Education, meeting this afternoon in Strasbourg, expressed their relief and joy at the release of the journalist Florence Aubenas and her assistant Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi on 11 June after five months in captivity in Iraq, as well as that of the three Romanian journalists released on 22 May. According to the statement adopted, “by abducting journalists, the kidnappers are first and foremost, and in a most contemptible way, depriving human beings of their freedom, but at the same time they are also seeking to suppress freedom of speech as a whole. We pay tribute to the courage of these professionals who carry out their jobs with determination and devotion in extremely dangerous situations.” The committee recalled that “these subjects have been at the centre of PACE’s discussions since March 2005, resulting today in a plenary debate on media and terrorism”.
20/06/2005 | News
When adopting the order of business of its Summer Session, PACE today decided to hold on Thursday 23 June two urgent debates: one on follow-up to the third Council of Europe Summit and the other on constitutional reform in Armenia. The Assembly also decided to hold a current affairs debate on the situation in the republics of Central Asia (Tuesday 21 June). An assessment of Russia’s honouring of its Council of Europe obligations and commitments and a report on the media and terrorism are among highlights of the session.
20/06/2005 | News
Addressing the Assembly at its summer session in Strasbourg (20–24 June), PACE President René van der Linden stressed that after the referenda which took place in France and the Netherlands on the European Treaty, Europe finds itself in an extremely difficult situation. "If we do not learn from these votes and do not react accordingly, we could soon be on the slippery road back to egocentric nationalism and its dangers," he said. "It causes a standstill instead of progress and optimism. It has a negative impact on the necessary and justified solidarity with central and eastern European countries."
20/06/2005 | News
“Terrorists have learned how to use information technologies in order to disseminate their own audiovisual recordings, electronic messages or web sites on the Internet, which compels states and the media to react accordingly”, today warned the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) meeting in plenary session. The parliamentarians, representing 46 European countries, invited media professionals to develop through their professional organisations “a code of conduct for journalists, photographers and editors dealing with terrorist acts and threats, in order to keep the public informed without contributing unduly to the impact of terrorism”.
20/06/2005 | News
The environmental targets the nations of the world set themselves nearly five years ago are “far from being met”, the Assembly said today. Achieving the eighth Millennium Development Goal – which seeks to enshrine the principle of sustainable development in decision-making at all levels by 2015 – will require “radical changes in the way nature is treated”, the parliamentarians warned. In a separate debate, the Assembly stressed the vital role of the IMF and World Bank in helping the world to meet all eight Millennium Development Goals, which aim to significantly reduce world poverty and promote human health and education by 2015.
20/06/2005 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
"We do not open our hearts and purses enough for refugees, and their rights are all too often forgotten," said the Chair of PACE’s Refugees Sub-committee Ruth Gaby Vermot-Mangold (Switzerland, SOC), speaking on World Refugee Day. She added: "It is absolutely essential that Council of Europe member states deal much more closely with this issue than they are doing today. Being a refugee is dramatic for any individual, for children and for families."
15/06/2005 | Session
An assessment of Russia’s honouring of its Council of Europe obligations and commitments and a report on the media and terrorism which calls on journalists to refrain from disseminating shocking terrorist images are among highlights of the summer session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which takes place in Strasbourg from 20 to 24 June 2005. The Assembly will also look beyond the Council of Europe’s 46 member states, with a possible current affairs debate on the situation in the Republics of Central Asia (*) and a debate on the situation in the Middle East, as well as a report on the disappearance of women and girls in Mexico (a Council of Europe observer state).
13/06/2005 | President
The President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), René van der Linden, today strongly condemned yesterday’s execution of four convicted murderers by the Palestinian Authority. "Death is not justice and will never be," he said. "The death penalty will not help to curb violence. In a long process of sharing our experience, we have succeeded in making the territory of our 46 member states a de facto death-penalty-free zone. Our ambition is now to extend it beyond the European continent," the PACE President stressed.
13/06/2005 | President
"The release of Florence Aubenas and Hussein Hanoun is excellent news," PACE President René van der Linden said today. "Freedom of the media is the cornerstone of a democratic society and the overwhelming international solidarity shown demonstrates how strongly the international community feels about defending this principle. During a plenary debate next week in Strasbourg on ‘The media and terrorism’, Council of Europe parliamentarians will be looking at the broader issues behind this event, including how to protect journalists’ freedom to report without aiding terrorists."
10/06/2005 | President
PACE President René van der Linden will meet European Commission President José Manuel Barroso in Brussels on Monday to discuss how the Council of Europe can contribute to the EU’s neighbourhood policy, the remit of the new Fundamental Rights Agency and the so-called “Juncker report” on the relationship between the EU and the Council of Europe, among other things. He will also raise the question of the EU’s accession to Council of Europe conventions.