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.
14/09/2004 | President
Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) President Peter Schieder today expressed great concern over the Belarusian President’s decision to hold, in parallel with the parliamentary elections on 17 October 2004, a referendum on allowing a president to run without limitations in future presidential elections. “While we cannot deny the right of the Belarusian authorities to hold a referendum in this context, we urge them to ensure that it be held in conformity with Council of Europe standards, as also stressed by the EU Council," he said.
14/09/2004 | Election observation
A ten-member Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) delegation led by Tana de Zulueta (Italy, SOC) is to observe the parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan on 19 September. The president of the Central Electoral Commission issued the invitation to the Assembly in the framework of the co-operation agreement concluded by the Kazakh Parliament and PACE in April 2004 to promote parliamentary democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights in the country.
14/09/2004 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
The Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) today made public a report on the humanitarian situation of the Chechen displaced population, prepared by Tadeusz Iwinski (Poland, SOC), which stresses that the situation of refugees and internally displaced persons remains very precarious. While recognising the efforts undertaken by the Russian authorities in order to advance the reconstruction of the destroyed republic, the committee agreed that the security and humanitarian situation remained unsatisfactory.
13/09/2004 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
European faiths can still do much more to promote women's rights, according to four specialists representing the German Council of Evangelical Churches, the Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate, the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) and the NGO "Catholics for a free choice". They were taking part in a hearing on women and religion in Europe, held in Paris on Friday by PACE's Equality Committee. Manuela Aguiar (Portugal, EPP/CD) is preparing a report on the subject.