In his opening speech of the PACE autumn session in Strasbourg today, PACE President Pedro Agramunt made a plea for the strict respect of principles and rules and warned against double standards.
He urged PACE to react firmly whenever someone faced persecution for his or her political views or activities; to closely scrutinise the effects of derogations from the European Convention on Human Rights on the grounds of an emergency situation, irrespective of the reasons that compel the authorities to resort to such a serious measure; and to prevent a pick-and-choose policy when it comes to implementing judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, stressing that “anyone within our jurisdictions must enjoy the same level of protection of human rights”.
The President also warned that “simply asking our citizens to choose among two or three options in a proposed referendum whenever serious and complex issues are on the table” would not resolve the challenges at stake – and nor would building walls to keep migrants out. (more...)