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”.
14/03/2005 | Standing Committee
PACE's Standing Committee will be meeting in Paris on Friday 18 March. Members will hold an exchange of views on the Council of Europe Summit of Heads of State and Government to be held in Warsaw on 16 and 17 May 2005. A request for an urgent debate on the draft Council of Europe convention on trafficking in human beings has been submitted by PACE’s Equal Opportunities Committee. The rapporteur on the question, Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold (Switzerland, SOC), believes that the convention is far from guaranteeing adequate or effective protection for victims.
14/03/2005 | News
PACE's Committee on Culture will be holding a hearing on the media and terrorism in Paris on 17 March. Participants will be looking at the role played by media coverage in terrorist strategy, the potential for media self-regulation, existing legal measures and the political steps that could be taken to strengthen them. Among journalists attending will be the editor of "Chechen Society" Timur Aliyev, leader-writer for "El País" Francisco Gor, "Le Figaro" journalist Georges Malbrunot, the Secretary General of Reporters sans frontières Robert Ménard, Czech Radio journalist Vit Pohanka, TV presenter and member of the editorial board of Al-Jazeera Muhammad Krishan, and controller of editorial policy at the BBC Stephen Whittle.
11/03/2005 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE’s rapporteur on European deltas Leo Platvoet (Netherlands, UEL) has just returned from a fact-finding visit to the Ebro Delta in Spain (3-4 March 2005), where he saw at first hand how the construction of upstream barrages has reduced natural sedimentation, contributing to major erosion of the delta, which is a protected area and home to many rare bird species. “Some 50,000 people live in the delta region, however, and this must also be taken into account in any plan to preserve this ecosystem,” pointed out Mr Platvoet, who met local mayors, farmers and hunters as well as environmental campaigners. He has also visited the Po and Danube Deltas for his report, which is due before the summer.
11/03/2005 | News
"In recent weeks, a number of persons indicted for war crimes from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and, most recently, from Kosovo, have agreed to give themselves up voluntarily to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia," said PACE President René van der Linden in a statement today. "This is a welcome development because it reinforces the chances that justice will finally be done for the terrible crimes committed during the wars in the Balkans."