21/12/2004 | President
PACE President Peter Schieder today warmly welcomed the release of Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, the two French journalists held hostages in Iraq since 20 August. "I wish to transmit to them and to their families our joy and to pay tribute to their courage. I very much hope that their liberation will soon be followed by others", he said.
20/12/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Jamal al-Harith, a British muslim who spent two years detained without charge at Guantanamo Bay, told a PACE hearing on Friday how he was subjected to "systematic abuse" which he was informed amounts to torture under international law. Addressing PACE’s Legal Affairs Committee in Paris, Mr al-Harith told parliamentarians how he was assaulted, "short shackled", subjected to extremes of heat and cold and hosed down as well as being denied access to necessary medical care and harassed in practising his religion. Mr al-Harith says he has never engaged in any kind of terrorist behaviour.
16/12/2004 | News
The Monitoring Committee also adopted, during its meeting on 15 December, a draft resolution on the honouring of obligations and commitments by Georgia. According to the co-rapporteurs (Matyas Eörsi, Hungary, LDR, and Evgueni Kirilov, Bulgaria, SOC), a year after coming into power, the new Georgian authorities continue to demonstrate an unyielding resolve to carry out far-reaching political, legal, social and economic reforms. However, the post-revolutionary situation should not become an alibi for hasty decisions and neglect for democratic and human rights standards.
16/12/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The Committee on Social Affairs, mmeting today in Paris, adopted draft resolution on "Assistance to patients at end of life". The text, prepared by Dick Marty (Switzerland, LDR), propose that Council of Europe member States define and implement "a genuine policy of assistance to patients at end of life which does not cause them to want to die". It therefore propose measures such as the promotion of palliative treatment, bearing in mind that the aim is to alleviate the patient’s suffering, while also realising that it may shorten his or her life in certain cases, and the development of codes of medical ethics to avoid superfluous treatments which can be regarded as over-zealous prolongation of life. The text underlines the right of any patient "capable of discernment, being fully aware of the facts, to decline the treatment proposed".
16/12/2004 | Elections
A 30-member delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly, headed by Tadeusz Iwinski (Poland, SOC), will observe the re-run of the second round of the presidential election to be held in Ukraine on 26 December 2004. The parliamentarians will arrive in Kyiv on 24 December to meet with the two candidates and the Chair of the Central Electoral Commission. On election day, they will be deployed in the capital and throughout the country.
15/12/2004 | Monitoring
PACE's Monitoring Committee, meeting today in Paris, adopted the following statement: “The Committee regrets the failure of the Ukrainian authorities to respect its calls made in June and September 2004 to conduct the election process with absolute impartiality and respect for Council of Europe standards. Although the first round clearly showed that Mr Yushchenko and Mr Yanukovych were the two winning candidates, both rounds were marred with systematic fraud, massive manipulations, and abuse of power by state officials ...
14/12/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Legal Affairs Committee, meeting in Paris on 16 December, adopted a draft resolution and a draft recommendation on "The protection of human rights in Kosovo" (rapporteur: Tony Lloyd, United Kingdom, SOC). The parliamentarians proposed a series of measures to improve the state of legal certainty and to reinforce the judicial system. They called on UNMIK and KFOR/NATO to commence work, in co-operation with the Council of Europe, on establishing a Human Rights Court for Kosovo.
13/12/2004 | News
Jamal al-Harith, a British man who was detained by the United States at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, will address PACE's Legal Affairs Committee during a hearing on "The lawfulness of detentions by the United States in Guantánamo Bay" in Paris on Friday 17 December 2004. Other participants include forensic psychiatrist Dr James MacKeith, who will discuss the psychological consequences of indeterminate detention, along with representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Venice Commission and Amnesty International. US diplomatic representatives have also been invited.
12/12/2004 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE's Political Affairs Committee today organised in Paris a parliamentary hearing on “the need for international condemnation of the crimes of communism”, in the framework of the preparation of a report on the subject. According to the rapporteur, Manuela Aguiar (Portugal, EPP/CD), it is time to take stock of the numerous crimes of totalitarian communism of the past and condemn them solemnly. Participants include Stéphane Courtois, co-author of "The black book of communism: crimes, terror and repression", former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky and Toomas Hiio of the Estonian Foundation for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity.
07/12/2004 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Migrants being a “soft” target, with no or little means to defend themselves, are an easy “victim” for negative myth-telling tabloid press across Europe. Participants at an exchange of views with media representatives on the image of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the media, organised in Paris on 6 December by PACE’s Committee on Migration, agreed that the press have the fundamental role of steering the public in the right direction.
07/12/2004 | Rules, Ethics and Immunities
“The role of the opposition in a democratic parliament” is the title of a seminar which took place at the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm on 10 December 2004, organised by PACE's Rules Committee. The seminar covered topics such as “how much opposition is necessary or desirable in a democracy?” and the rights and resources necessary for an opposition to contribute to the democratic functioning of a parliament, drawing on examples of current practice from national legislatures around Europe.
03/12/2004 | President
Assembly President Peter Schieder today welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court of Ukraine to re-run the second round of the Presidential election. “This decision shows that the rule of law has prevailed in finding a solution to the current political crisis. The re-run of a second round by the 26th December will give the Ukrainian people a new chance to freely express their will and democratically elect their President. A Parliamentary Assembly delegation will observe the re-run of the election, as it did on 31 October and 21 November. I urge the Ukrainian authorities to address the serious irregularities noted by the International Election Observation Mission in order to ensure that the election fully complies with Council of Europe standards”, Mr Schieder said.