23/06/2004 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
There should be “zero tolerance” for domestic slavery – the fate of thousands of women across Europe who are forced to work in private households as domestic workers, exploited as au pairs or abused as so-called “mail-order brides” – the Assembly said yesterday. In a resolution, the parliamentarians called on states to review their immigration and deportation policies, screen agencies and adopt a charter of rights for domestic workers.
23/06/2004 | Monitoring
In its first two years as a member of the Council of Europe, Bosnia and Herzegovina has made “slow but steady” progress towards becoming a functioning pluralist democracy governed by the rule of law and a state where human rights are respected, the Assembly said today. However, the country’s leadership needed to demonstrate a higher degree of political maturity, the parliamentarians said. In a separate vote, they called for a debate among Bosnians on post-Dayton constitutional reform.
23/06/2004 | News
The Assembly today called on governments to ensure that women are involved in preventive diplomacy, conflict-resolution, peace-making and post-conflict reconstruction at all levels. Adopting the rapporteur's (Minodora Cliveti, Romania, SOC) proposals, the Assembly said women and men have different access to resources, power and decision-making before, during and after conflict. "Women are therefore caught in a vicious paradox: on the one hand, they are the main civilian victims of conflicts, yet on the other hand they are powerless to prevent them, since they are often excluded from the negotiating tables and marginalised in post-conflict reconstruction," the parliamentarians said.
23/06/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The Parliamentary Assembly today called on European governments to institute a total, Europe-wide ban on the corporal punishment of children, enforced in national legislation. "It is a shame that the smallest and most fragile of Europe's citizens should have to wait until last to have their protection guaranteed," said Helena Bargholtz (Sweden, LDR), presenting her report. While all 45 member states of the Council of Europe have banned corporal punishment in schools, only a minority have formally prohibited it in the family and in all other settings – as they are required to do under international agreements, she pointed out. In its recommendation, the Assembly called for Europe to be made a “corporal-punishment-free zone” for children.
22/06/2004 | Monitoring
The Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly today made the following statement: “The October 31 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 reverse the current political trend in the country and give it a chance to anchor itself more firmly in the family of European democracies. However, the information on the current pre-election environment by the Committee’s rapporteurs who recently returned from Ukraine is a cause for great concern.
22/06/2004 | Monitoring
The Parliamentary Assembly today decided to end the monitoring of Turkey, declaring that the the country had “achieved more reform in a little over two years than in the previous decade” and had clearly demonstrated its commitment and ability to fulfil its statutory obligations as a member state of the Council of Europe. However, the Assembly resolved to continue “post-monitoring dialogue” with the authorities on a twelve-point list of outstanding issues.
22/06/2004 | President
The Norwegian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers intends to develop the role of the '45' in preventing conflicts, through measures aimed at promoting good governance and strengthening intercultural contact and dialogue. Adressing the Assembly, Norwegian Foreign Affairs Minister Jan Petersen, Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, said his country "will support dialogue and contacts between religious communities. Norway believes that education has great potential for promoting knowledge and understanding between cultures and different ethnic groups."
22/06/2004 | Elections
Terry Davis (United Kingdom, SOC) has been elected to serve a five-year term as Secretary General of the Council of Europe, following a vote by the Assembly. In the first round of the election, which took place today, 157 members of the Assembly voted for Mr Davis (an absolute majority), with 91 voting for Walter Schwimmer and 51 for Kristiina Ojuland. Mr Davis has been a member of the Parliamentary Assembly for twelve years, and President of the Socialist Group in the Assembly since 2002. For the last two years he has worked as the rapporteur on the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh for the Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee.
22/06/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The Assembly sees recent EU enlargement – which brought eight of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development 'countries of operation' into the Union – as a vindication of the EBRD’s major contribution to European integration. It called for the Bank to put a growing emphasis on the remaining non-EU states, in particular those which are less developed, and commend it on the link it makes between progress in human rights, democracy and the rule of law, on the one hand, and economic development on the other. However, the Assembly deplored developments in countries at the bottom of the Bank’s 'constitutional liberalism index', such as Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Belarus.
22/06/2004 | President
During a meeting with members of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe led by Konstantin Kosachev, Assembly President Peter Schieder strongly condemned the armed attack against a government building in Ingushetia, causing the deaths of some 50 people including civilians, a local UN staff-member and high-ranking representatives of the Ingush authorities. On behalf of the Parliamentary Assembly, which is currently holding its summer session in Strasbourg, Peter Schieder expressed his sympathy to the families of the victims. “This attack shows the need to further improve international co-ordination against terrorism worldwide,” he said.“Only the total rejection of violence as a means of political struggle and an unremitting commitment to the rule of law and human rights can bring peace to the region,” Mr Schieder pointed out.
22/06/2004 | News
In his address to the Parliamentary Assembly, Jean Lemierre, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said that the bank's situation was sound and that it could grant more loans to countries further east. Although the rule of law and the market economy were still important criteria, the education and health fields were also essential for the future of the entire region.
21/06/2004 | News
When adopting the order of business of its Summer Session (21-25 June), the Assembly decided to hold an urgent debate on the Council of Europe's contribution to the settlement of the situation in Iraq on Thursday at 10 a.m. Lluis Maria de Puig (Spain, SOC) was declared elected an Assembly Vice-President.