24/06/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Rapporteur for follow-up to Parliamentary Assembly Resolution 2335 (2020) and Recommendation 2177 (2020) on “Drug policy and human rights in Europe: a baseline study”, Hannah Bardell (United Kingdom, NR), welcomed the adoption by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe of a...
23/06/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The problem of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, as identified and described in a January 2020 resolution of the Assembly, “has been neither duly recognised nor adequately addressed by the authorities, let alone resolved”, according to a follow-up report declassified yesterday. The follow-up...
09/06/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
“National and international authorities considering the introduction of ‘Covid pass’ systems should bear in mind the basic standards of human rights and the rule of law as set out in the report by the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)," said...
03/06/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Alexandra Louis (France, ALDE), Rapporteur for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on follow-up to Resolution 2362 (2021) on Restrictions on NGO activities in Council of Europe member States, has expressed great concern at the arrest of Russian activist Andrei Pivovarov at St...
03/06/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
“Politicians need a particularly high level of protection of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, both in parliament and when speaking to their constituents, but that freedom of speech is not unlimited,” today said PACE’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, adding that hate speech...
19/05/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Given the climate crisis and the importance of holding private and public actors liable for their contributions to climate change, the Legal Affairs Committee, meeting today by videoconference, proposed reinforcing civil and criminal liability for “acts that might have an impact on climate change...
19/05/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
A PACE committee has clarified the pre-conditions necessary for the use of Covid passes, declaring their use “fraught with legal and human rights complications”. The use of such passes, which would partially lift Covid restrictions for holders, “above all depends on a high degree of certainty...
17/05/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
A PACE parliamentary hearing on reported cases of political prisoners in Azerbaijan took place on 17th May 2021. The hearing was organised by PACE’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights in the framework of follow-up to a report by Thorhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC). Participants...
12/05/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for follow-up to Resolution 2362 (2021) on "Restrictions on NGO activities in Council of Europe member States", Alexandra Louis (France, ALDE), has expressed concern over two new draft laws aimed at widening the scope of...
04/05/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Vladimir Vardanyan (Armenia, EPP/CD), General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty, has welcomed the recent pardon of the two brothers Illia and Stanislau Kostseu, who had been on death row. “I am very satisfied with this...
26/03/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Vladimir Vardanyan (Armenia, EPP/CD), General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty, has welcomed the decision of the US state of Virginia to abolish the death penalty, the first of the former “Confederate” states to do so...
23/03/2021 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Council of Europe member States are being urged to use universal jurisdiction and “Magnitsky laws” to bring to justice the perpetrators of serious human rights violations in Belarus during the recent protests and government crackdown, including torture. Approving a report by Alexandra Louis...