30/03/2005 | News
PACE President René van der Linden said today that "a French 'yes' to the draft European Constitution is also a 'yes' for a Europe based on democracy and human rights". The Assembly President was addressing the foreign affairs committees of the French National Assembly and Senate and the Senate European Union delegation in Paris today. The draft Constitution is essential for Europe and for European citizens, he said. It provides for Union accession to the European Convention on Human Rights, which safeguards the fundamental rights of over 800 million Europeans. "This clearly shows that protecting Europeans' fundamental rights is a central strand of the draft Constitution".
30/03/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (Germany, LDR), rapporteur for the launching of a new enquiry into the murder of the Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze on behalf of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), will be in Kyiv from 30 March to 1 April for a fact-finding visit. Ms Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger is expected to meet the President of the Republic, the Interior and Justice Ministers, the State Prosecutor, the ad hoc committee of the Rada and experts who have worked for that committee, as well as the legal counsel of the late Mr Gongadze’s mother. A press conference will be held on 1 April at noon in the Interfax agency’s offices (8/5 a, Reitarska Str, Kyiv).
24/03/2005 | News
The European Union should consider the Council of Europe as the primary framework for its "neighbourhood policy", sign up to Council of Europe treaties to create a "single European legal space" and make systematic use of the Council’s expertise, PACE President René van der Linden told the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Luxembourg Parliament yesterday during a visit to the Grand Duchy. "The message is clear and direct," said the President, "the EU should make full use of the experience, institutions and instruments of the Council of Europe". Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who currently chairs the EU Council, is due to address PACE at its April session.
24/03/2005 | President
Speaking ahead of a possible vote in the United Nations Security Council on the Darfur crisis, PACE President René van der Linden today called on all Security Council members – including the United States, which holds observer status with the Council of Europe – to allow the ICC to help protect the people of Darfur. “The Assembly believes that an immediate and credible threat of accountability is essential to help prevent further violations. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is best placed to provide such deterrence," he said.
23/03/2005 | Monitoring
PACE's co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Ukraine today welcomed “a new positive spirit” in Ukraine’s willingness to tackle its commitments to the Council of Europe, but said they were glad the new leadership “seems to have understood the necessity to pass from revolutionary ‘euphoria’ and rhetoric to concrete acts that will help make democratic processes irreversible”. Hanne Severinsen (Denmark, LDR) and Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD) were speaking at a press conference following a fact-finding visit to Kyiv from 20 to 23 March 2005.
18/03/2005 | News
PACE today decided to hold a debate under urgent procedure on the freedom of the press and the working conditions of journalists in conflict zones on Thursday 28, as well as a current affairs debate on the European Constitutional Treaty the same day. However, parliamentarians voted against the Bureau proposal to hold un urgent debate on the constitutional reform process in Armenia. The adopted order of business includes also debates on assistance to patients at end of life and the lawfulness of detentions by the United States in Guantánamo Bay. Luxembourg Prime Minister and EU Council President Jean-Claude Juncker as well as Serbia and Montenegro President Svetozar Marovic are due to address the Assembly.
18/03/2005 | News
At the start of today's meeting of the Standing Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Paris, the leader of the French delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly, Bernard Schreiner, delivered a message from the Minister with responsibility for European Affairs, Claudie Haigneré, in which she set out three objectives for the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe to be held in Warsaw on 16 and 17 May: to strengthen the Council of Europe in the fields in which it excelled: human rights, democracy and the rule of law; to establish closer relations with the European Union and step up co-operation with the OSCE; and finally to open up further to civil society, NGOs, academic networks and the media.
18/03/2005 | Standing Committee
The Standing Committee urgently recommended that the Committee of Ministers incorporate "seven key amendments" into the draft Convention on action against trafficking in human beings before it was opened for signature "to ensure the effective and sufficient protection of victims". In accordance with the proposals put forward by the rapporteur, Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold (Switzerland, SOC), the parliamentarians agreed that the draft Convention should contain provisions which gave greater protection to the rights of victims than community law gave them, especially if these provisions concerned rights already granted to victims under domestic or international law. The PACE expressed “deep” regret that, during the negotiations conducted by the CAHTEH (the Committee of Experts responsible for drafting the text), the European Commission had systematically refused to allow these provisions to be incorporated into the draft Convention.
18/03/2005 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
How are we to “manage” images of terrorist acts, their accompanying messages and incitement to hatred? Is it in fact possible to regulate the media in this area when terrorists are becoming increasingly skilled in staging their actions, and handling images and the new technologies with great finesse? These were the questions on the agenda for this exchange of views among the PACE parliamentarians and media representatives present. One of the journalists attending was Timur Aliyev, editor-in-chief of the “Chechen Society” newspaper (one of the few independent Chechen organs based in Ingushia). Francisco Gor, a leader writer with “El Pais” (Madrid, Georges Malbrunot, a reporter with “Le Figaro” (Paris), Vit Pohanka, a journalist on Czech Radio (Prague), Mohamed Krichen, a TV presenter and member of the editorial board of the Arab television channel “Al-Jazeera” (Qatar), and Stephen Whittle, the Controller of Editorial Policy at the BBC (London).
18/03/2005 | News
Stressing the pre-eminence of the Council of Europe as regards the protection of human rights in Europe, PACE's Standing Committee called for closer co-ordination and co-operation with the "46" in setting up a Fundamental Rights Agency of the EU, decided by the European Council in 2003. "There is no point in re-inventing the wheel by giving the Agency a role which is already performed by existing human rights institutions and mechanisms in Europe", parliamentarians said. The Standing Committee called on the European Union and its member states, before setting up the Agency, "to a careful reflection about the aims, content, scope, limits, and instruments of the EU’s own internal human rights policy, taking into account the role played by the Council of Europe in the promotion and protection of human rights".
17/03/2005 | News
The Chair of PACE's Culture Committee Jacques Legendre (France EPP/CD), speaking today at a hearing on the media and terrorism organised by the committee, sent a message of support and hope to the journalist Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi assistant Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi. "I pay tribute to the courage of these professionals who carry out their jobs with determination and devotion in extremely dangerous situations and, on the committee’s behalf, I call for their release," he said.
15/03/2005 | Political Affairs and Democracy
A Round Table on the political situation in the Chechen Republic ended yesterday with a decision to hold similar meetings with the aim of “broadening the basis for the dialogue” needed to achieve a political solution. Around sixty people – including Chechen President Alu Alkhanov, representatives of Russian human rights NGOs and parliamentarians – took part in the day-long Round Table, but in line with the so-called “Strasbourg criteria” those who refuse to recognise the territorial integrity of Russia and declared terrorists were excluded. The Chair and Co-Chair of the organising sub-committee Andreas Gross and Konstantin Kosachev regretted that some invitees had decided not to come at the last moment, but said the talks marked “a first step”.