30/09/2013 President
Strasbourg, 30.09.2013 – “As members of the Parliamentary Assembly, we cannot remain silent in the face of the terrible war taking place in Syria which has reached extremely disturbing proportions: over 100 000 dead and more than two million refugees in two and a half years of violence”, said Jean-Claude Mignon, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), at the opening of the autumn session in Strasbourg today.
“It is the Assembly’s duty to try to make a political contribution to the resolution of this conflict, not only by supporting the efforts of diplomats in our member states but also by sending a strong message to all our capitals urging our governments to do everything within their power to ensure that international humanitarian law is respected by all belligerents”, he added, while welcoming the decision to hold an urgent debate on the situation in Syria on Thursday morning.
In his speech, Jean-Claude Mignon also referred to the first award ceremony for the Council of Europe’s Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize. “This prize is above all an acknowledgement of the outstanding work done all over the world by men and women committed to the defence of human rights. It constitutes recognition in the eyes of all those who are fighting to ensure respect for human dignity and fundamental human rights and freedoms, very often in extremely difficult conditions and at the risk of their lives”, he concluded.