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.
04/03/2004 | Monitoring
Kimmo Sasi (Finland, EPP/CD) and Erik Jurgens (Netherlands, SOC) were designated by the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe to prepare a draft opinion on whether or not to open a monitoring procedure with regard to Latvia. They will visit the country in the course of March 2004.Their report will be submitted to the Committee at its next meeting in Strasbourg during the spring session (26-30 April). The decision of the committee doesn’t interfere with the post-monitoring dialogue established with Riga since January 2002.
03/03/2004 | Standing Committee
The Assembly’s Standing Committee, meeting in Paris on 2 March, has restored the voting rights of the Irish parliamentary delegation, suspended since the end of January 2004 on the grounds of its male-only composition. The decision was made following the inclusion of Ann Ormonde in the delegation. On 27 January the Assembly decided to bar the all-male Irish and Maltese parliamentary delegations from voting in the Assembly or any of its bodies until at least one woman is appointed. The credentials of both delegations were challenged on the first day of the session following new rules which require national delegations to have at least one representative of each sex. The voting rights of the Maltese delegation remain suspended.
03/03/2004 | Bureau
Meeting in Paris on 1 March, the Assembly's Bureau adopted a provisional agenda for the Assembly’s spring session (26-30 April 2004). Main items include an opinion on the Principality of Monaco's application for membership of the Council of Europe, disappeared persons in Belarus and euthanasia.
03/03/2004 | Monitoring
Over the last three years Turkey has clearly demonstrated its commitment and ability to fulfil its statutory obligations as a Council of Europe member state and the monitoring procedure under way since 1996 should therefore be closed, according to the Monitoring Committee of the Assembly. But the parliamentarians were also in favour of a “post-monitoring dialogue” with Turkey on a twelve-point list of outstanding issues, including a major reform of the 1982 constitution, further recognition of national minorities, continued efforts to combat violence against women, the fight against corruption and amendments to the electoral code.
02/03/2004 | Monitoring
Mady Delvaux-Stehres (Luxembourg, SOC) and Luc Van den Brande (Belgium, PPE/DC), co-rapporteurs on Turkey's honouring of its obligations to the Council of Europe, will be available to meet the press and present their report at 1 pm on Wednesday 3 March 2004, in the Council of Europe's Paris office (55, Av. Kléber, Paris, tel. 01 44 05 33 60). The Monitoring Committee of the Assembly is scheduled to approve a report on Turkey's honouring of its obligations to the Council of Europe in Paris the same day, when it will also decide whether or not to close the monitoring procedure, which started in 1996. The report may also be included on the Assembly's spring session agenda.