11/06/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The Assembly’s Economic Affairs Committee, meeting at the headquarters of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, is to approve its annual report on “The OECD and the world economy” prepared by Abdülkadir Ateş (Turkey, SOC). The report is due to be debated at the autumn session by the so-called Enlarged Assembly, which has served as the OECD’s parliamentary forum since 1962 and which includes parliamentarians from OECD countries not members of the Council of Europe.
08/06/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
On 8 June the Assembly’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights held a parliamentary hearing in Berlin on the concept of “nation” in the framework of a report on the subject being prepared by György Frunda (Romania, EPP/CD). The day before, the committee is due to hold an exchange of views with German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries in the framework of a report on cross-border crime in Europe.
08/06/2004 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
From 8 to 12 June, Lord Russell-Johnston (United Kingdom, LDR), who is preparing a report on “the cultural situation of the Kurds” on behalf of the Assembly’s Committee on Culture, Science and Education, will visit cultural centres in Diyarbakir, Mardin and Hakkari, and a Kurdish language centre in Van. In Ankara he will meet Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül, Education Minister Hüseyin Çelik and the minister responsible for Turkish radio and television Beşir Atalay (to be confirmed). In Istanbul, he will visit the Kurdish Institute and the Mesopotamia Cultural Centre as well as meeting the press.
08/06/2004 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
On 11 June, the Sub-committee on Population of the Assembly’s Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population will take part in a meeting in Strasbourg of the Council of Europe’s inter-governmental group of population experts, the European Population Committee, and will discuss preparations for a parliamentary seminar in Bratislava in September on demographic challenges for social cohesion, with special focus on central and eastern Europe.
01/06/2004 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC) and Rudolf Bindig (Germany, SOC), rapporteurs on the political and human rights situations in the Chechen Republic respectively, ended their fact-finding visit to Moscow, Grozny and Nazran today. They aimed to evaluate the situation in Chechnya following the assassination of Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov. They met senior government and legal representatives, parliamentarians and civil society representatives in both Moscow and Grozny, and visited settlements for displaced persons in Nazran.
28/05/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
"Human rights apply to rich as well as poor – everyone is equal before the law," said Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (Germany, LDR), speaking at the end of a three-day fact-finding visit to Moscow to investigate the circumstances surrounding the arrest and prosecution of Yukos executives. "Everyone is entitled to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, or acquitted in a fair trial," she added. Though unable to meet any of the three detained executives in prison, she met prosecution and defence lawyers, Justice Ministry officials and human rights activists. Her report is due before the autumn.
25/05/2004 | Bureau
The honouring of obligations and commitments by Turkey and by Bosnia and Herzegovina, domestic slavery and the electronic media in Italy are among subjects provisionally scheduled for debate during the Assembly’s summer session (21-25 June 2004). Other items on the draft order of business, adopted on Monday by the Assembly’s Bureau, are a Europe-wide ban on corporal punishment of children and the Euro and the Greater Europe. The Assembly itself will decide the final order of business only on the first day of the session.
25/05/2004 | President
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities acts as a “laboratory of democracy” at local and regional levels, Parliamentary Assembly Peter Schieder said today, addressing the Congress during its opening session. “Your intiatives, debates and projects have served to water and fertilize the grass roots, especially where the seeds had fallen on long untended ground. And the Congress is looking more and more into how the grass is growing. Its country-by-country monitoring in the light of the European Charter of Local Self-Government is an important complement to the monitoring carried out by the Parliamentary Assembly,” said Mr Schieder.
25/05/2004 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Eli Isaev, Vice-Chairman of the Government of the Chechen Republic, held an exchange of views with the Assembly's Political Affairs Committee during its meeting in Paris today. Subjects discussed included the human rights situation in the republic, as well as a coming visit to Russia of Council of Europe rapporteurs on the region.
25/05/2004 | Monitoring
The Assembly’s Monitoring Committee yesterday welcomed the "slow but steady" progress made by Bosnia and Herzegovina in its first two years as a Council of Europe member state, noting a surge of legislative activity which produced new laws in key areas of reform, but said in a draft resolution that they now needed concrete implementation. In a separate report approved on Tuesday, the Political Affairs Committee called for a constructive debate among Bosnia’s political forces on the need for, timing and paramaters of post-Dayton constitutional reform. Both reports are due for discussion at the Assembly’s summer session.
25/05/2004 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
The Italian authorities should put an end to the long-standing practice of political interference in the media and deal urgently and convincingly with the problem of conflict of interest, the Assembly’s Culture Committee said in a draft resolution made public today. In a report by Paschal Mooney (Ireland, LDR) approved last week, the committee said that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi held “unprecedented control over the most powerful medium" in the country. The negative international image of Italy resulting from this conflict of interest could hamper the efforts of the Council of Europe in promoting independent media in the new democracies, the parliamentarians said. The report is due for debate at the Assembly’s summer session.
24/05/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (Germany, LDR), who is preparing a report on "the circumstances surrounding the arrest and prosecution of leading Yukos executives" for the Assembly’s Legal Affairs Committee, visits Moscow from 24 to 27 May. She has asked to meet the three detained executives, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev and Alexei Pichugin, as well as the president of the district court which has been dealing with their cases, the Justice Minister and General Prosecutor. She will give a press conference at 11.30 a.m. on Thursday 27 May at Interfax.