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Krišjānis KARIŅŠ, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Latvia and President of the Committee of Ministers

Latvian Foreign Minister calls for support to Ukraine, continued dialogue on current issues

11/10/2023 | Session

“The consequences of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine continue to dominate the agenda,” said Krišjānis Kariņš, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia and Chair of the Committee of Ministers, when addressing the Parliamentary Assembly. “Impunity cannot prevail,” he added. The minister...

Piero FASSINO (Italy, SOC)

Escalation of violence in the Middle East: PACE holds current affairs debate

11/10/2023 | Session

“Nothing can justify the atrocities committed by Hamas and there can be no ambiguity on this point,” today said Piero Fassino (Italy, SOC), at the opening of a current affairs debate on “Escalation of violence in the Middle East following the recent Hamas attack on Israel”. He expressed his full...

Pieter OMTZIGT (Netherlands, EPP/CD)

Five member states must investigate spyware abuse, says PACE

11/10/2023 | Session

Citing “mounting evidence” that spyware has been used for illegitimate purposes by several Council of Europe member states, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has urged five governments to provide information on their use of such spyware within three months, and fully...

Béatrice FRESKO-ROLFO (Monaco, ALDE)

Preventing and combating violence against women with disabilities

11/10/2023 | Session

PACE today emphasised that violence against women with disabilities, whether physical, sexual, psychological or economic, remained a taboo subject. The parliamentarians believe that society infantilises women with disabilities by not allowing them to make informed choices about their lives...

Women@PACE

The Network for a Healthy Environment and the ‘Women@PACE’ group to discuss the impact of environment on...

10/10/2023 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development

As part of Pink October, the Network of Parliamentarians for a Healthy Environment and the Women@PACE group will hold an exchange of views on “Breast cancer and the right to a healthy environment”, in the margins of the PACE plenary session. Professor Carole Mathelin – an obstetrician...

Dialogue with representatives of Russian democratic opposition forces

PACE to create a ‘contact platform’ for dialogue with representatives of Russian democratic opposition forces

10/10/2023 | Political Affairs and Democracy

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is to create a “recurring contact platform” for dialogue with representatives of Russian democratic opposition forces who share Council of Europe values, fully respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and condemn Russia’s war of aggression...

Photo group of the participants in the exchange of views with Prof. Carole Mathelin on "Breast cancer and the right to a healthy environment"

An exchange of views highlights the correlation between the environment and breast cancer

10/10/2023 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development

“The environment clearly has an impact on the development of breast cancer,” said Professor Carole Mathelin, a Hospital Practitioner specialising in breast cancer surgery, who has developed a research project to establish the link between the environment and breast cancer. She was speaking at an...

SG

Secretary General’s question time at the Parliamentary Assembly

10/10/2023 | Session

Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić has responded to parliamentarians’ questions at the PACE Autumn plenary session. During a lively Q & A session, the Secretary General underlined the follow-up to the Fourth Summit of the Heads of State and Government Reykjavik agenda, focusing on the...

Sammad Seyidov

Preventing far-right extremism by strengthening adherence to Council of Europe core values

10/10/2023 | Session

PACE today expressed its concern about the increase in recent years of far-right violence, driven by xenophobia, racism and other forms of intolerance, stressing that a number of member States consider forms of far-right terrorism “the fastest growing or most prominent domestic security threat...

Yasko and O'Loughlin

PACE takes stock of the honouring of membership obligations to the Council of Europe by France

10/10/2023 | Session

The Assembly today took stock of the honouring of membership obligations to the Council of Europe by France. Recalling France’s longstanding democratic tradition and its commitment to respect for human rights, the Assembly said it was following “with interest” the experiments with participatory...

Death row
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‘The death penalty is a relic of the past, a barbaric and inhuman practice that has no place in modern...

09/10/2023 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights

On the eve of the 21st World Day against the Death Penalty (10 October), PACE General Rapporteur on the abolition of the death penalty Aleksandar Nikoloski (North Macedonia, EPP/CD) made the following statement: “As stated in the Preamble to Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention on Human...

PACE President opening speech

PACE President: 'a continuous refusal to implement the judgements of the Strasbourg Court can no longer be...

09/10/2023 | President

“While we are gathering here representing people of our member States and associate States, the peoples in our area are confronted with the harsh reality of natural and man-made disasters, earthquakes, floods, fires and tensions, confrontations and open violence. This includes the suffering of...