25/06/2019 | 19:02:20 Yes, Madam President, I will speak in the language of my compatriot, Rousseau, and I take the floor as First Vice-President, since Ms KOVÁCS is the rapporteur, she cannot be judge and jury. First of all, before I make a statement, I would like to have three small Swiss verses on behalf of the Committee. Firstly, to pay tribute to Ms Liliane MAURY PASQUET, our President who in my country, as I can attest, as others on all political sides can also attest, has fought hard for the cause of women... 23/01/2019 | 11:32:21 Jefferson said that, “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press”. As several colleagues have said, it is true that the situation of the press is an indicator of whether a democratic society is in good health, but press plurality is something that few member States in the Council of Europe are offering. Every year, Reporters Without Borders identifies and ranks countries that respect press plurality; in 2018, Norway was No.1 and Switzerland was No. 5. It denounced many States represented... 22/01/2019 | 19:59:25 I quote Lord Donald ANDERSON, in the spirit of building bridges rather than erecting walls. We do not want confrontation; we want dialogue and to promote, within multilateral organisations of which they are members or observers, unilateral values of human rights without any discrimination based on sex, gender, gender identity and support or otherwise for religion. Oh no, I do apologise – I have got that wrong. In paragraph 8, delete the following sentence: “The Assembly is aware that informal... 22/01/2019 | 18:33:45 I have been asked to present the opinion of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination. I thank our staff and Mr Gutiérrez, who cannot be here, for his report. Perhaps I may recall what is said in the report on behalf of the committee. We feel that when it comes to human rights there is no room for religious or cultural exceptions. That needs to be made clear because sometimes people have impugned our motives, saying that we are very lax. I think we all agree that universal rights... 22/01/2019 | 11:01:14 I thank you wholeheartedly, dear colleagues; never has so much mention been made of Switzerland. I thank Mr Gianni BUQUICCHIO, who even quoted James Fazy – the founder of the modern republic in 1847 – and my illustrious compatriot Jean-Jacques Rousseau. We owe him a great deal. Having said that, I have heard a lot of concerns expressed about referendums. How can we avoid them? Perhaps we need to define referendums. Unfortunately – this is my personal opinion – they are not sufficiently...