24/06/2024 Session
"On the occasion of the 2024 PACE summer session, we are celebrating here in Strasbourg the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Council of Europe. On 10 August 1949, during the first session of our Assembly, only one woman was accredited as a Representative. Today, I am proud to be the Secretary General of a Parliamentary Assembly which has reached almost 50 per cent female representation!”, declared Despina Chatzivassiliou-Tsovilis today.
The Secretary General of the Assembly was addressing the discussion panel "75 women, 75 years of the Council of Europe: women in diplomacy", organised by the EU Delegation to the Council of Europe.
Participants included Committee of Ministers' Deputies Chair Andrius Krivas, Iceland’s Minister of Social Affairs and the Labour Market Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson, the former President of GREVIO Feride Acar, PACE member Petra Bayr and the Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the Council of Europe Tanja Gonggrijp.
The exhibition “75 Women in 75 Years of Council of Europe History”, presented today in the framework of the PACE Summer session 2024, puts in the spotlight 75 women, past and present, who have influenced the work of the Council of Europe, to highlight the remarkable work of many, often unknown, women in the field of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law throughout the Council of Europe’s history and current work.
It is organised by the Delegation of the European Union to the Council of Europe with the Council of Europe and the Permanent Representations of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.