25/06/2026 | 18:29:29 Thank you very much. And I really want to congratulate Ms Laura CASTEL and Mr Joseph O'REILLY for their work on this really, really excellent, important report. There are serious concerns about the increasing proliferation of violent and extreme pornographic content on online forums, and, in particular, how this content normalises gender-based violence and the dehumanisation of women and girls. There's a mass growing availability of such content online. It is extremely concerning when set... 25/06/2026 | 16:19:14 Thank you, colleagues. Violence against women is endemic, and it's pervasive. But rather than making progress in this area, it feels very much like we're going backwards. One in three women in the European Union still experiences some form of physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. And to tackle this, we need to make serious reforms in access to justice. A significant barrier, particularly in Ireland, is the use of survivors' counselling notes as evidence. So, in Ireland, there's a... 25/06/2026 | 10:54:03 Thank you. Colleagues, The political declaration signed in December last year was disturbing. It was disturbing that 27 Council of Europe member states chose to politicise the work of the Court. And I want to get this clear. I firmly believe that a political engagement with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is critical. States are central to the ECHR. It is states that implement the Convention, it is states that execute the judgements, and it is states that resource the system... 24/06/2026 | 11:53:36 Thank you and thank you to the rapporteurs. The unprecedented proliferation of disinformation online, facilitated by generative artificial intelligence (AI), has profound implications for how citizens interact with the democratic process, eroding trust in institutions, politicians and elections with an avalanche of fake news and increasingly sophisticated deepfakes able to distort reality, thereby threatening the very concept of democratic accountability. We've seen the ease with which bad... 23/04/2026 | 11:34:31 Thank you very much. The current conflict in the Middle East is a direct result of President Donald TRUMP and Prime Minister Benjamin NETANYAHU's illegal war. Let there be no doubt that President Donald TRUMP is a warmonger. Since his second term, President Donald TRUMP has bombed seven countries, including bombing a girls' school in Iran, killing 175 people, most of them children. The bombing campaign has brought suffering to people across the Middle East, but we need to be clear that this... 23/04/2026 | 10:22:32 Thank you very much. And I want to thank the rapporteur for bringing forward this debate. This year, Ukraine enters its fourth consecutive year of bloodshed as a result of the crime of aggression. We've seen significant progress in establishing the legal framework for a special tribunal, and that is historic. It's a massive step in the right direction for accountability. We want to note that the International Criminal Court (ICC) remains the most suitable venue to prosecute these crimes... 22/04/2026 | 17:46:09 Thank you. I want to thank the rapporteur Ms Gala VELDHOEN for the comprehensive report. The abolition of the death penalty is a foundational principle of the Council of Europe. It's embedded in our commitment to human dignity, the rule of law, the absolute prohibition of inhumane and degrading treatment. Therefore, it's completely indefensible and inconceivable that Israel continues to retain observer status at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and indeed Venice Commission... 22/04/2026 | 16:12:45 Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. You're obviously two years now into your mandate. In that time we've seen a very sharp deterioration in the protection of rights in a variety of ways: the violations that we've seen in Ukraine, intolerance towards migrants, effective funding reductions at the Council of Europe, poor rates of execution of judgments, and this talk of sort of rupture of international law, as if we're pulling away from international law instead of leaning into it. I suppose my... 22/04/2026 | 13:26:41 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Violence against women is an epidemic. In Ireland, 35% of women have experienced psychological, physical or sexual abuse from an intimate partner. 25% of women have experienced sexual violence from a partner as an adult. This year on the island of Ireland, we have seen 4 women murdered: In the North: Amy Doherty - mother-of-two from Derry was killed. Ellie Flanagan A childcare worker was killed in March. In the South: Scarlett Faulkner was in... 01/10/2025 | 16:42:07 Thank you, Chair, And thank you, Ms Yevheniia KRAVCHUK, for this report. Often, when we speak about the role of youth in democracy, we're always framing it in terms of the future. But across Europe today we see young people, very much in the present, protesting and organising in defence of their political and their civil rights, and demanding transparency and accountability from their leaders, from their representatives, from us. And we see them protesting, whether that's climate change...