PACE has launched the new Parliamentary Network for a Healthy Environment, bringing together around 30 parliamentarians from some 20 different parliaments across the Council of Europe area to demand that governments create a legal right to a healthy environment and take other urgent steps to deal with the climate crisis. The network grew out of the Assembly’s recently launched #EnvironmentRightNow initiative, as well as a series of seven PACE resolutions on the topic adopted during an unprecedented all-day debate in September 2021.
"We want to anchor the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment in law, policy, practice and the public consciousness", said the Network’s Chairperson, former PACE President Rik Daems. "Our ultimate goal is the adoption of a protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights which would make it legally enforceable in national courts across the continent and in the Strasbourg Court."
The No Hate Parliamentary Alliance, established in 2015, is a network of parliamentarians who commit to take an open, firm and pro-active stand against racism, hatred and intolerance. The Alliance was created by the PACE Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination in follow-up to the Assembly Resolution 1967 (2014) on "A strategy to prevent racism and intolerance in Europe". The Alliance provides a platform for parliamentary activities to tackle intolerance, hate speech and all forms of racism including Afrophobia, anti-Gypysism, antisemitism, Islamophobia and LGBTI-phobia through hearings, conferences, thematic events, round tables and awareness-raising activities.
The Alliance is open to members of the Parliamentary Assembly and to members of delegations having observer or partner for democracy status with the Assembly, as well as members of the European Parliament. Their commitment is formalised by signing the Charter of commitments for membership of the Alliance.
The Parliamentary Network Women Free from Violence brings together parliamentarians from the national delegations to the Parliamentary Assembly and observers and partners for democracy. The Network has been active since 2006, when it contributed to the Council of Europe campaign "Stop domestic violence against women".
The Network provides a parliamentary forum for the Council of Europe's work to end gender-based violence. The Network actively campaigns for the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) at national, European and global level and its effective implementation in practice. It also provides its members and national parliaments with information, expertise and practical tools on their role in the monitoring of the implementation of the Convention, through various activities such as hearings, conferences, thematic events, round tables and awareness-raising activities.
The Parliamentary Platform for the rights of LGBTI people in Europe brings together MPs from the national delegations to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, observers and partners for democracy. The aim of the platform is to use interparliamentary cooperation to promote full and effective equality for LGBTI people throughout the continent. It enables members to press for change and work together on a wide range of activities to engage governments, inspire new laws and raise awareness.
The platform is coordinated by the Assembly’s General Rapporteur on the rights of LGBTI people . Its creation followed an Assembly resolution adopted in January 2022 which condemned the recent rise in stigmatising, dehumanising attacks against LGBTI people and the backsliding in LGBTI rights seen in some countries.
