Parliamentary Assembly

1. The Parliamentary Assembly believes that firm and urgent measures are needed to tackle the mounting pressure and tension over asylum and irregular migration into Greece, Turkey and other Mediterranean countries.

A l’issue de leur visite officielle en Tunisie, Edmond Panariti, Président du Comité des Ministres du Conseil de l’Europe et Ministre des Affaires étrangères de l’Albanie, et Jean-Claude Mignon, Président de l’Assemblée parlementaire de l’Organisation, accompagnés du Président de la Commission de Venise Gianni Buquicchio, ont appelé les autorités tunisiennes à mener de l’avant la réforme constitutionnelle en cours « de manière à asseoir solidement les fondements d’une société démocratique et pluraliste, respectueuse des droits et libertés de chacun », tout en encourageant la mise en place à

Strasbourg, 05.10.2012 - Pietro Marcenaro (Italy, SOC), Chair of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), has today condemned the “shocking human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions in public, floggings, amputations and stoning to death” inflicted on persons accused of crimes, outside any legal framework, by the armed Islamic groups operating in northern Mali, a country divided between the government-controlled south and the north controlled by extremist groups linked with the Nigerian terrorist group B

“We must all encourage women to continue and increase their participation in democratic movements : there can be no democracy without respect for women’s rights,” said the PACE President, speaking today at the opening of a hearing on women’s contribution to the Arab Spring and the outlook for the status of women.

A precious resource to boost work for human rights throughout Europe

A few years ago, the Norwegian government launched a project to give support to Council of Europe member countries in carrying out the work needed to implement the judgments of the Court of Human Rights. The initiative came from a realisation that many member states faced difficulties in changing their law or national practices simply because of financial or structural obstacles, and that what was needed was a structure to help with capacity building and expert support.

Report Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons Rapporteur: Ms Tineke STRIK, Netherlands, Socialist Group Summary The starting point for this report is that at least 1 500 people are known to have lost their lives attempting to cross the Mediterranean in 2011. This report however focuses on one particularly harrowing case in which a small boat left Tripoli with 72 people on board and after two weeks at sea drifted back to Libya with only nine survivors.

Report

Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons

Rapporteur: Mr Nikolaos DENDIAS, Greece, Group of the European People’s Party

Summary

Winter session: 23-27 January 2012

In a resolution adopted today on the basis of a report by Egidijus Vareikis (Lithuania, EPP/CD), PACE expressly condemned any form of enforced population transfer in Europe and elsewhere in the world, a practice which involves moving persons into or out of an area, either within or across an international border, or within, into or out of an occupied territory, without their free consent.

PACE's Committee on Migration today said that addressing the situations of protracted displacement of populations in the North Caucasus will require "will demand sustained political will and allocation of resources, and may require capacity strengthening of some state institutions".

According to the text adopted on the basis of proposals by the rapporteur (Nikolaos Dendias, EPP / CD), a process based on human rights, more transparent procedures, better communication with IDPs and increased participation of the latter will also be essential.