21/09/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Local authorities from the countries around the Adriatic basin could work together for the sustainable development of their common sea using Council of Europe expertise and EU finance, according to the head of the Italian delegation to PACE Claudio Azzolini. He was speaking at a colloquy held at Chioggia in the Venice Lagoon, attended by representatives from Albania, Croatia, Italy, Serbia and Montenegro and Slovenia.
21/09/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE’s Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee, together with the Sub-Committee on Population of its Migration Committee, are jointly organising in Bratislava on 23-24 September a parliamentary seminar to prepare the European Population Conference 2005. This conference, co-hosted by the Assembly in Strasbourg from 7-8 April 2005, will provide a forum for dialogue between demographers and policy-makers Europe-wide on the theme “Demographic challenges for social cohesion”. This preparatory seminar, which focuses on the problems of central and eastern Europe, will discuss in turn changing family formations, ageing, the impact of migration and vulnerable population groups.
20/09/2004 | President
PACE President Peter Schieder will take part in an “African-European parliamentary consultation on children orphaned by AIDS in Africa” (22-24 September, Cape Town) alongside South African President Thabo Mbeki, Pan-African Parliament President Gertrude Mongella (who is also due to address the Assembly during its October session in Strasbourg) and former UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson. Mr Schieder will also be representing the Council of Europe’s North-South Centre. The consultation, organised by the North-South Centre, AWEPA “European Parliamentarians for Africa” and the Dutch presidency of the EU, will focus on the reality for AIDS orphans and vulnerable children, practical action and parliamentary monitoring, as well as re-prioritising the international agenda.
20/09/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE’s Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee will hold in Bratislava on 22 September an exchange of views on a memorandum on Assistance to ill persons at the end of life by Dick Marty (Switzerland, LDR). Following a plenary debate in April 2004 on Mr Marty’s earlier report on Euthanasia, the Assembly voted to refer it back to the committee, recommending “a new text which brings together the widely diverging approaches expressed during the debate”. The committee will also discuss two petitions, one on Dutch-speakers’ and the other on French-speakers’ right to medical care in Brussels and surrounding regions. The committee will also be informed by Michael Hancock (United Kingdom, LDR) of his recent visit to Bulgaria to follow up his report on Improving the lot of abandoned children in institutions.
20/09/2004 | Election observation
The 19 September parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan fell short of OSCE and Council of Europe standards in many respects. Of particular concern were the failure to fully implement improved election legislation and the manner in which electronic voting was introduced, which did not contribute to the confidence of the electorate in the election process, concludes the International Election Observation Mission (IEOM) in a statement, issued today. Over 300 international observers from 33 countries monitored the voting and counting on behalf of the OSCE and Council of Europe.
17/09/2004 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE’s Political Affairs Committee has proposed the creation of a Round Table for politicians from Chechnya and Russia as a whole to help increase democratic stability in the republic. Speaking at press conference in Paris on 14 September, rapporteur Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC) said that the new body should involve only those who “renounce violence”. The report, approved by the committee the same day, described the Beslan hostage-taking as “a gross crime against humanity” but appealed to all authorities involved not to react to the provocation in kind. The report is due to be debated by the Assembly - together with others on the human rights and humanitarian situations in Chechnya - on Thursday 7 October in Strasbourg.
16/09/2004 | Monitoring
The Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), meeting in Paris on 15 September 2004, adopted the following statement: "The October 31 presidential elections are an opportunity for Ukraine to ensure full respect for the principles of pluralist democracy, human rights and the rule of law. A credible democratic election could give the country a chance to anchor itself more firmly in the family of European democracies."
16/09/2004 | Prizes
The 2004 Europe Prize was awarded to Oudenaarde in Belgium during a ceremony in the town today. The prize, created by the Parliamentary Assembly in 1955, is awarded every year to a European town or territorial authority for its active promotion of the European ideal through activities such as twinnings, events or exchange visits.
16/09/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Final agreement within the World Trade Organisation on the so-called “Doha development agenda” is urgently needed if the quickening process of globalisation is to benefit all the world’s population, PACE’s Economic Affairs Committee said in a draft report approved yesterday. The report, by Kimmo Sasi (Finland, EPP/CD), welcomed the interim agreement reached by WTO members in Geneva in July 2004. WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi will take part in the plenary debate on the report, provisionally scheduled for Monday 4 October 2004.
16/09/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
"The human rights situation in the Chechen Republic remains catastrophic," Rudolf Bindig (Germany, SOC) concludes in his report, due to be debated at the Assembly’s October session (4-8 October, Strasbourg). Supporting Mr Bindig’s report at its meeting today in Paris, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) unequivocally condemned recent terrorist attacks and killings by illegal armed formations.
16/09/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Assembly's Legal Affairs Committee, meeting in Paris, has said it is outraged at today’s arrest of Tatiana Reviaka and Garry Pogoniaïlo in Belarus. According to a report by AFP, the two human rights activists were arrested today in Minsk while distributing copies of a PACE report by Christos Pourgourides (Cyprus, EPP/CD) which accuses several high representatives of the Lukashenko regime of being responsible for the murder of opposition figures.
15/09/2004 | Monitoring
Four years after the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia and Montenegro is a country that has changed enormously, but not yet enough, Milos Budin (Italy, SOC) and Jonas Cekuolis (Lithuania, LDR) conclude in their report on the functioning of democratic institutions in Serbia and Montenegro, due for debate in the Assembly’s October session. A draft resolution, submitted by the two Assembly rapporteurs and adopted by the Monitoring Committee in Paris today, therefore concludes that the Assembly should continue to monitor the honouring of commitments and obligations by Serbia and Montenegro.