24/06/2021 | 16:48:32 Many congratulations to our rapporteur Mr Momodou Malcolm JALLOW, on what is an excellent report. But I do want to echo something he made very clear, that his call is not simply for support, it is for action, and we need action. We need action in countries like my own, where yesterday, we saw a prison officer convicted of manslaughter when he kicked to death and tasered to a reasonable degree a man called Dalian Atkinson, a former professional footballer, who played at the highest levels of... 23/06/2021 | 10:35:17 Mr President, I'm also delighted to be able to take part in this short debate, because it is so important as my friend Mr Kimmo KILJUNEN has just said, the place for opposition politicians is in the Belarusian Parliament. But in fact things go a little deeper than that. We know that the world believes that Mr Lukashenko is not the president of Belarus. He did not win the election last August; that was almost certainly won by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. But of course it isn't just the... 22/06/2021 | 10:18:43 Joining the congratulations to our rapporteurs for what I think is a generally worthwhile incredible report. I just wanted to say a few words, first of all, about the the obvious central importance of freedom of the media, free and independent media of all kinds, social media, traditional media, is fundamental in our democracies. We cannot have free and fair elections without those and along with the independence of the judiciary, I can think of nothing more important than independent... 22/04/2021 | 11:14:21 Thank you very much. Let me give my thanks first of all to Mr Jacques MAIRE for what is an excellent technical report. It lays out the legal position in a very clinical and very sensible fashion. I hope our colleagues from the Russian Federation will look very carefully at this report. This isn't an anti-Russian report. In actual fact it's pro-Russian. It's pro- a particular Russian, which is Mr Alexei Navalny. But it's actually about the way Russia operates as, one would hope, a country that... 20/04/2021 | 16:09:36 And can I begin by thanking very strongly Mr Georgios KATROUGKALOS for his excellent report and also in a very non-formulaic, a very real way, my appreciation of the work over many years, of Angel GURRÍA, the Secretary-General of the OECD. It is important we do record that Mr GURRÍA, not simply to be formulaic, but because I hope that the culture that you have established at the OECD will continue into the future because that is what you have established but that is what is so important for... 27/01/2021 | 18:51:09 Thank you. I'm grateful for this opportunity. Can I begin by saying this: that if the core function of the Council of Europe is to ensure that democracy, the rule of law and human rights are upheld, we can never allow the law to be put into contradiction with democracy. It's fundamental to any kind of functioning democracy that there's the right to dissent, the right to challenge, the right to disagree. I can't think of how my work as a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom could have... 20/11/2020 | 11:42:28 Profound and wise words this morning. Is the sound OK? (I really don't hear very well. Could you put your microphone closer to yourself?) I'll try to do this. Thank you. First of all, thank you for your very wise and profound words this morning. They're very helpful. On the subject of prioritization of cases, could you talk us through how this is working in practice? Because, of course, the fundamental importance of your court is that it does establish the regime for recognition of human... 20/11/2020 | 10:13:37 Mr President, can I give a big thanks to Mr Michael ROTH for his presence, but also his early remarks on the the Roma, a group of people who are at a massive disadvantage across our continent. But can I turn briefly to Belarus: we know that the recent election was fraudulent and I pay tribute to the opposition voices led by Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya. I also very strongly welcome the decision of the European Union and my own country on the sanctions regime. But the two questions that I want to...