28/01/2024 | Session
Debates on recent developments in the Middle East: Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel and Israel’s response, and on allegations of systemic torture in places of detention in Europe, were among highlights of the 2024 Winter Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), held...
26/01/2024 | Session
According to PACE, the abuse of children in institutions in Europe must be recognised, whether they have been victims of sexual predators, gratuitous violence or ill-treatment in public, private or religious institutions. Drawing on the example of good practice in Switzerland, PACE called for...
26/01/2024 | Session
PACE has taken stock of its monitoring activities in 2023 and made a series of assessments of the eleven countries under its full monitoring procedure, the three engaged in post-monitoring dialogue, and the three countries subject this year to “periodic review” of their obligations to the Council...
25/01/2024 | Session
Following an urgent debate today, PACE unanimously adopted a resolution based on the report by Olena Khomenko (Ukraine, EC/DA) underscoring the urgent need to address the situation and fate of Ukrainian children forcibly transferred and deported to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine...
25/01/2024 | Session
United around our values - “The 75th anniversary of the Council of Europe that we are celebrating this year is taking place under the same motto that brought our leaders together in Reykjavík,” said Dominique Hasler, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Education and Sport of Liechtenstein and President...
25/01/2024 | Session
There is an urgent need for all Council of Europe member states to act together against SLAPPs – frivolous, vexatious or malicious legal proceedings which aim to intimidate, harass or silence their targets, thus threatening public participation – according to the Assembly. Approving a resolution...
25/01/2024 | Session
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has set out wide-ranging proposals to build a democratic future for Belarus – including a new set of measures to support Belarusian democratic forces led by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who also addressed the Assembly. Approving a resolution...
25/01/2024 | Session
PACE today emphasised the pressing need “to enforce the high standards on media freedom which the Council of Europe has established, to ensure effective protection of journalists and to uphold in all member States a friendly and safe environment for media independence and pluralism”. It recalled...
24/01/2024 | President
“Almost 80 years ago, in March 1945, a fifteen-and-a-half-year-old girl named Anne Frank perished in the Bergen-Belsen camp. Without the diary she wrote between the ages of 13 and 15, Anne's fate would be indistinguishable from that of the one and a half million children who vanished under...
24/01/2024 | Session
“Multilateral organisations, such as the Council of Europe, play a critical role in promoting peace and stability,” said Daniel Risch, Prime Minister of Liechtenstein, when addressing the Parliamentary Assembly. “Multilateralism is one of our lifelines,” he said, adding that the multilateral...
24/01/2024 | Session
Adopting a resolution on allegations of systemic torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in places of detention in Europe, based on a report by Constantinos Efstathiou (Cyprus, SOC), the Assembly today called for enhanced measures to combat and eliminate torture and other forms...
24/01/2024 | Session
Michael O’Flaherty (Ireland) was today elected as the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights by the organisation’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) at its plenary session in Strasbourg. He will serve a non-renewable term of six years starting on 1 April 2024. Mr O’Flaherty obtained 104 of...