02/10/2019 | 18:02:18 Thank you. I would also like to congratulate the rapporteur for a timely and very well-informed report. Terrorism, unfortunately, has become a fact of modern life for many of our member states. While huge focus, funds, and efforts have gone into trying to prevent and forestall terrorist incidents — and quite rightly so — more recently we began to acknowledge the pain, trauma and profound shock and grief experienced by the victims of terrorist incidents. Beyond acknowledgement, we have also... 26/06/2019 | 10:50:54 Thank you, Madam President I would also like to thank and congratulate the rapporteur on her thoughtful and, above all, balanced report. Balanced because it focuses both on what is wrong and what appears to be successful and promising practices to mitigate or even eliminate unnecessary coercion. All of our countries can learn from and should reflect on initiatives such as the personal Ombudsman support model in Sweden, which is firmly client- and patient-focused, the mental health equivalent... 10/04/2019 | 10:32:44 The Council of Europe was set up in the aftermath of the havoc wreaked across Europe and Asia by the racist rhetoric, military conflict, and industrialised euthanasia that gave rise to the legal definition of genocide. Who can forget the flickering black and white images of Hitler and Goebbels raising hate speech to the level of a poisonously effective artform, mesmerising the masses and normalising the denigration and vilification of fellow human beings? I am sure our founders hoped and... 24/01/2019 | 17:13:17 I welcome the report, and I note the largely satisfactory and positive honouring of obligations in Iceland, so I will focus my remarks on Italy. I must declare an interest as I have the great good fortune to be married to an Italian. I have a deep love and affection for both our countries, but that does not make me blind to what is less than perfect and what needs to be changed and improved. In the United Kingdom, we are witnessing a dialogue of the deaf about our relationship with the... 22/01/2019 | 12:30:04 Our brains are completely frozen in the United Kingdom, so it is nice to know that somebody’s is not. I appreciate your comments on the need for flexibility, but it must be mutual. I think we must take decisions, rather than be continuously flexible. In May 1994, the Committee of Minsters agreed that, unless exceptional circumstances have prevented a member state from fulfilling its financial obligation, Article 9 of the Council of Europe Statute will be applied to exclude that member state...