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Azerbaijan has a political prisoners 'problem', says PACE, urging review of reported cases and wider reform
“There can no longer be any doubt that Azerbaijan has a problem of political prisoners, and that this problem is due to structural and systemic causes,” PACE has declared, urging the authorities to ensure alleged cases are reviewed by an impartial body, and to undertake “fundamental reforms” to...
For a complementary joint procedure CM-PACE in response to a serious violation by a member State of its statutory obligations
The Parliamentary Assembly welcomed the intensification of dialogue and contacts with the Committee of Ministers with a view to setting up a complementary joint procedure between the two statutory organs of the Council of Europe in response to a serious violation by a member State of its...
Council of Europe equipped to meet challenges of future, Secretary General tells PACE
The Council of Europe must take a leading role in overcoming new challenges to human rights, democracy and the rule of law, Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić has told the organisation’s Parliamentary Assembly. Populism, hate speech, discrimination against minorities, attacks on the media,...
Igor Dodon: “the Common House remains a project that inspires and mobilises”
“Despite the uncertainties, the European project of the Common House remains a project that inspires and mobilises”, today said Igor Dodon, President of the Republic of Moldova, addressing the Parliamentary Assembly. “We must be aware that, whatever the national specificity and the languages...
70th anniversary of European Convention on Human Rights: a convention for the people
The leaders of the 47-nation Council of Europe have issued the following statement to launch the 70th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights in 2020: The European Convention on Human Rights came into being against the dreadful background of the devastation of the Second World War,...
Denmark: ensures protection of German minority but needs to address rising intolerance
Denmark has consistently supported members of the German national minority in South Jutland, the country’s only recognised national minority. However, the authorities should take further local measures to promote intercultural understanding and dialogue with the German minority, including...
Call on member States to remedy quickly and effectively any threats to media freedom
Threats to media freedom and the safety of journalists have become so numerous, repeated and serious that they are jeopardising not only citizens’ right to be properly informed but also “the stability and smooth functioning of our democratic societies”, the Council of Europe Parliamentary...
Parliamentary Assembly opens monitoring of Poland over rule of law
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has voted to open a monitoring procedure for Poland over the functioning of its democratic institutions and the rule of law, declaring in a resolution that recent reforms “severely damage the independence of the judiciary and the rule of...
Salome Zurabichvili: ‘Georgia has consolidated its democratic institutions’
“Georgia's accession to the Council of Europe 21 years ago has marked the start of a path towards the transformation of our society, the liberation of the individual, the democratisation of the political system, the consolidation of democratic institutions, and a state based on the rule of law,”...
Council of Europe Holocaust Remembrance ceremony
Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić has led tributes to victims of the Holocaust at a special ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Around six million Jews were brutally murdered during the Second World War, but many Roma and LGBTI...
