27/01/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, rapporteur for the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee, has invited three Israeli MPs with Observer status in the Assembly to an exchange of views on organ trafficking, at 2 pm on Tuesday 27 January. The member from Switzerland will also present the findings of her recent visit to Turkey in connection with this matter.
27/01/2004 | News
The Assembly President today honoured the memory of the late Aleksander Malachowski, member of the Polish parliamentary delegation to the Council of Europe and of the Socialist Group, who died yesterday in Warsaw.
27/01/2004 | News
27/01/2004 | News
The progress Azerbaijan has made towards honouring obligations and commitments is far from satisfactory. According to the Assembly, the presidential elections in October 2003 again failed to meet international standards, the constitutional arrangements regarding the separation of powers are inadequate and are favouring the executive power and freedom of expression and freedom of association have not improved. The parliamentarians called on the Azerbaijan authorities to set up - with the assistance of the Council of Europe – an enquiry commission to investigate and, where justified, prosecute all alleged human rights violations. The monitoring procedure should not be closed until the Azerbaijani authorities make further substantial progress on the outstanding obligations and, notably, demonstrate their ability to organise free and fair elections.
27/01/2004 | News
The Assembly today 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.
27/01/2004 | News
This afternoon, the Parliamentary Assembly rose for a few moments in commemoration of the “Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and for the prevention of crimes against humanity” on the day of the Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. “The Holocaust did not start in 1940 - it took years to happen”, President Peter Schieder warned. “It did not only take place in Auschwitz, Treblinka, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau and other places of horror. It happened in the streets, in schools, through acts, and failures to act, of ordinary citizens, Germans, but not only them. Anti-semitism was not exclusive to the Third Reich, and we should never forget that tens of thousands who fled the persecution could have been saved – if they had been treated as victims, and not as illegal immigrants,” he said.
27/01/2004 | News
The President of the Assembly announced the results of the election of a judge to the Court of Human Rights with respect to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ljiljana Mijovic was elected with 84 out of 128 cast votes. Zoran Pajic and Ahmed Zilic, scored 9 votes and 35 votes respectively. The term of Ms. Mijovic expires at 31 October, 2010.
27/01/2004 | News
The Assembly´s President will open a colloquy tonight on the role of women in conflict prevention and resolution, organised by the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men. Speakers from some of the major conflict areas in Europe will be present, including Northern Ireland, Cyprus, the Balkans and the Chechen Republic (Russian Federation). The colloquy will take place from 7 pm to 9 pm in room 8.
27/01/2004 | News
"The Council of Europe insists on strict and unequivocal respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms. We cannot stress strongly enough that anti-terrorist measures which violate human rights and fundamental freedoms will ultimately fail. The bottom line is that we cannot make our humanity secure if our security is not humane", said Council of Europe Secretary General Walter Schwimmer addressing the Assembly on the subject of the state of the Council of Europe.
27/01/2004 | News
Undeniable efforts by Armenian authorities are once more showing a real political will to making progress towards honouring obligations and commitments which Armenia entered into, the Assembly said. However, parliamentarians called for further substantial progress as regards the functioning of the judicial system and the independence of the judiciary, the situation in Armenian prisons and the conditions of detention, the misconduct of law enforcement officials, freedom of demonstration and media pluralism.
26/01/2004 | News
The Assembly today confirmed, by 71 votes to 28, the decision of its Bureau not to monitor Liechtenstein over recent constitutional changes but instead to start a dialogue with authorities of the Principality on the question. The Monitoring Committee had earlier recommended opening a full monitoring procedure. The Bureau will now consider what form the dialogue could take at its meeting on Friday.
26/01/2004 | European Conference of Presidents of Parliament
"The European Conference of Presidents of Parliaments, held at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on 17-19 May 2004, brought together more than sixty Presidents and Speakers of the Parliaments of our 45 member States. It was a landmark event in 2004 for the Parliamentary Assembly, the Council of...