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.
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.
24/05/2004 | Monitoring
Meeting in Budapest on 26 May, the Assembly’s Monitoring Committee is due to approve a report by Naira Shakhtakhtinskaya (Azerbaijan, EDG) and László Surján (Hungary, EPP/CD) on the honouring of obligations and commitments by Bosnia and Herzegovina – the first assessment by the committee since the country joined the Council of Europe in 2002. A day earlier, the Political Affairs Committee is due to approve a report on the evolution and future development of democratic institutions in the country.
24/05/2004 | Monitoring
Hanne Severinsen (Denmark, LDR) and Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD), co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Ukraine, make a fact-finding visit to the country from 27 May to 3 June to assess the state of Ukraine’s honouring of its obligations and commitments. They will concentrate on the question of minorities. They are due to meet regional authorities and minority representatives in Transcarpathia – including Mukachevo, where they will look into the circumstances surrounding the recent mayoral election there – as well as Odessa and the Crimea. They will also be present during the parliamentary by-election in Odessa on 30th May. They are due to give a press conference at the Verkhovna Rada on 3 June at 1.15pm.
19/05/2004 | News
"Closer and more regular interaction between the PACE and national parliaments are necessary in order to reflect the interests and concerns of national parliaments more faithfully in the PACE’s work," Parliamentary Assembly Secretary General Bruno Haller said this morning at a meeting of the Secretaries General of parliament. Concrete proposals for strengthening co-operation at secretariat level include training courses and seminars, an electronic newsletter on PACE activities and programmes of parliamentary assistance to new member states.