12/03/2004 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
The Sub-Committee on Science and Ethics (of the Committee on Culture, Science and Education) will hold an exchange of views in Paris on 17 March on “Parliaments and the knowledge society” with the participation of Claude Birraux, Chairman of the French Parliamentary Office for Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Options (OPECST) and Antonios Trakatellis (*), Chairman of the European Parliament Scientific and Technological Options Assessment (STOA). (*) to be confirmed
12/03/2004 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
The agenda of the meeting of the Committee on Culture, Science and Education on 18 March includes approval of an opinion prepared by Majlene Westerlund Panke, (Sweden, SOC) on the Draft Additional protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, on Biomedical Research, and of an information report on Kosovo’s cultural heritage. Members will discuss diaspora cultures (Eleonora Petrova-Mitevska, "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", SOC), education for Europe (Ghiorghi Prisacaru, Romania, SOC) and religions and intercultural dialogue (André Schneider, France, EPP/CD). They will also hold an exchange of views with Gottfried Wagner, Director of the European Cultural Foundation. The next day, the committee members will visit the French city of Lille, European capital of culture 2004.
12/03/2004 | News
Parliamentary Assembly President Peter Schieder will address participants of the conference organised on 18 March in Strasbourg to mark the 10th anniversary of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI).
10/03/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights is to hold a hearing on the human rights situation in Kosovo in Paris (Council of Europe Office, 55 avenue Kléber) on Tuesday 16 March 2004. The hearing will be opened at 9am by the first Vice-Chairperson of the committee, Dick Marty (Switzerland, LDR). Participants will include Bajram Rexhepi, Prime Minister of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG) of Kosovo; Marek Antoni Nowicki, Ombudsperson; Petr Ivantsov, Political Director of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK); Carsten Weber, Director of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the OSCE Mission (OMIK), and Alvaro Gil-Robles, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.
10/03/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
At a joint press conference in Strasbourg on 10 March, Michel Hunault (France, EPP/CD), rapporteur for the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly on the situation of European prisons and pre-trial detention centres, and Maurizio Turco, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the rights of prisoners in the European Union, called for the drawing up of a European Prisons' Charter. This joint initiative by the two institutions will equip Europe with a permanent monitoring system in the judicial and penal field, ensuring supervision of all the players in the judicial and penal system.
09/03/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
On Wednesday 10 March, 11 a.m., Assembly rapporteur Michel Hunault (France, EPP/CD) presented his report on the situation of European prisons and pre-trial centres together with Maurizio Turco, European Parliament rapporteur on the rights of prisoners in the European Union at a joint press conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg (Louise Weiss Build., room N -1/201). In his report, Mr Hunault stresses that living conditions in many prisons and pre-trial detention centres are incompatible with respect for human dignity.
05/03/2004 | Political Affairs and Democracy
The Political Affairs Committee met (8 March) in the Slovenian capital for an exchange of views with the national authorities, including Slovenian Prime Minister Anton Rop, Foreign Affairs Minister Dimitrij Rupel and parliamentary Speaker Borut Pahor. The committee approved reports by Christos Pourgourides (Cyprus, EPP/CD) on the persecution of the press in the Republic of Belarus, and by Tana de Zulueta (Italy, SOC) on the strengthening of the United Nations.
05/03/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Sub-Committee on the election of judges to the European Court of Human Rights held on 8 March in Paris interviews with candidates for judge in respect of Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway. Based on the interviews and assessments of CVs, the sub-committee will make confidential recommendations to assist the Assembly, which elects each judge to the Court from a list of three candidates submitted by the Contracting State concerned. The new elections, due to take place during the Assembly’s April session, are necessary since the six-year term of office of half the judges in the Court comes to an end in November 2004.
05/03/2004 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
The Migration Committee is due to approve on 10 March, in Paris, a report on “a European migration observatory/agency” – due for debate in the Assembly’s April session – and one on “the situation of refugees and displaced persons in the Russian Federation and other selected CIS countries”, both by Tadeusz Iwiński (Poland, SOC). The committee may also approve a report on “human mobility and the right to family reunion” by Rosmarie Zapfl-Helbling (Switzerland, EPP/CD). A new ad hoc sub-committee on the humanitarian situation of displaced persons in Chechnya meets for the first time to consider its work programme – including the possible co-organising, in co-operation with the Russian State Duma and Federation Council, of a Round Table on this subject. The Sub-Committees on Refugees, on Migration and on Population also meet to elect their chairs and to consider their future work.
05/03/2004 | Election observation
A 9-member, cross-party Assembly delegation headed by Rudolf Bindig (Germany, SOC) observed the presidential election in Russia on 14 March as part of an international election observation mission. The delegation met presidential candidates and the Chair of the Central Election Commission as well as journalists who have been covering the campaign and representatives of civil society, before deploying around the country on election day to observe polling.
05/03/2004 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
The abuse of au pairs, the servitude of maids or nannies and so-called mail-order brides were on the agenda of a colloquy on domestic slavery organised by the Committee on Equal Opportunities of the Assembly in Paris on 11 and 12 March.<br> - <a href="http://www.coe.int/T/E/Com/Files/Events/2004-03-8Mars/esclavage_urgence.asp">Urgent need for new laws on domestic labour</a> <br> - <a href="http://www.coe.int/T/E/Com/Files/Events/2004-03-8Mars/20040311_news_sga_esclavage.asp">Maud de Boer-Buquicchio: The aim must be zero tolerance for all forms of slavery </a><br> - <a href="http://www.coe.int/T/E/Com/Files/Events/2004-03-8Mars/20040312_sga_esclavage.asp">Young au pairs in a position of complete utterly vulnerability </a>
04/03/2004 | Monitoring
Albania has made progress towards being a functioning democracy and a state ruled by law in the last three years, but corruption and organised crime remains the single most important threat to the country, according to a draft report approved yesterday by the Assembly’s Monitoring Committee. The committee said Albania should continue to be monitored. The report is provisionally scheduled for debate during the Assembly’s April session.