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PACE President regrets decision to remove Bronze Soldier memorial in Tallinn
[27/04/2007] PACE President Ren� van der Linden has expressed his deep concern over last night�s turbulent events in the centre of Tallinn, Estonia, during which demonstrators and police were injured and one person died. He regretted the decision of the Estonian authorities to remove the Bronze Soldier memorial as this act, rather then building bridges, is widening the rift between the country�s citizens of Estonian and Russian origin.�
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Legal Affairs
Dick Marty strongly deplores �flagrant injustice� of UN Security Council blacklisting
[25/04/2007] PACE investigator Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE) today strongly deplored the UN Security Council for the �flagrant injustice� of blacklisting individuals suspected of having links to terrorism without evidence of any wrong-doing, flouting its own principles. The process of blacklisting � in which individuals have their assets frozen and are banned from travelling � is carried out behind closed doors by a New York-based committee (the �1267 committee�) at the request of Security Council members. Those blacklisted are not informed or given a chance to be heard, and there is no appeal. The list currently contains 362 individuals and 125 companies or organisations.�
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President
PACE President attends Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly in Indonesia
[26/04/2007] PACE President Ren� van der Linden is to take part in the 116th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Denpasar, Indonesia, from 29 April to 3 May. He will also hold several bilateral meetings on the fringe of the meeting, including with the Indonesian Foreign Minister. Earlier in Jakarta (26-28 April), he will meet Indonesia�s Justice Minister, as well as the Chair of the country�s Human Rights Commission, to discuss co-operation with the Council of Europe and promoting inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue.�
Ren� van der Linden pays tribute to former Russian President Boris Yeltsin
[23/04/2007] Following the death of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, PACE President Ren� van der Linden today declared: "I want to pay tribute to Russia's first democratically elected President. For the Council of Europe, Boris Yeltsin will be remembered as the man who brought the Russian Federation to the European family of common values based on democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Under his Presidency, he instituted a moratorium on executions in Russia. Boris Yeltsin will be remembered as the symbol of the irreversibility of the transition to democracy in Russia."
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Spring session 2007: 16-20 April
Counterfeit medicines: PACE calls for a Convention to combat pharmaceutical crime
[20/04/2007] The Assembly today called on the governments of the Council of Europe member States to make provision for an international legal instrument, in the form of a convention, designed to introduce a new offence relating to pharmaceutical crime. During a debate on the quality of medicines in Europe, the parliamentarians warned about a phenomenon that kills and can be associated with a form of organised crime. Counterfeit medicines affect 10% of the world medicines market and the losses are estimated at about 500 billion euros a year.
The report, by Bernard Marquet (Monaco, ALDE), highlights the alarming increase in counterfeit medicines, which now account for 10% of the world market, and cost states 500 billion euros in lost taxes every year.
It calls for an international convention, defining a new offence � pharmaceutical crime � and making it possible to arrest, prosecute and punish the producers of counterfeit or adulterated medicines.�
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Parliamentarians call for stronger measures against counterfeiting
[20/04/2007] The Assembly today called on member states to tackle the problem of counterfeiting in a more comprehensive manner, and suggested the preparation of a European convention on the suppression of counterfeiting as well as information campaigns on its dangers and better protection of intellectual property. Counterfeiting can endanger consumers� health and safety, seriously damage the economy and nurture criminal networks, the parliamentarians said.�
All sides should accept the ruling of Ukraine�s Constitutional Court, says PACE
[19/04/2007] The ruling of Ukraine�s Constitutional Court in the current crisis, if delivered, should be accepted as binding by all sides, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) said in a resolution adopted today at the end of an urgent debate attended by Ukraine�s Parliamentary Speaker Oleksandr Moroz. However, the Assembly also warned that pressure in any form on the judges of the Court was �intolerable�, and should be investigated and criminally prosecuted.�
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PACE calls for �zero tolerance� of human rights violations in Europe
[18/04/2007] PACE today demanded that European governments institute a policy of �zero tolerance� towards human rights violations in Europe and take action on the worst violations � such as enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings, torture and secret detentions � to preserve the Council of Europe�s credibility. At the end of a special debate on human rights and democracy on the continent, the parliamentarians denounced �the gap between standards on paper and the reality on the ground� as regards both human rights and democracy, and declared: �It is time to end hypocrisy and turn words into deeds.��
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Laws on official secrecy �too broad�, say parliamentarians
[19/04/2007] Legislation on official secrecy in many Council of Europe member states is �rather vague or otherwise overly broad� and could cover a wide range of legitimate activities of journalists, scientists or lawyers, PACE said in a resolution adopted today. It singled out the German, Swiss and Italian, as well as US, authorities for threatening, or attempting to prosecute, journalists or other �whistleblowers� of official secrets, and said there were strong indications fair-trial principles were not respected in a series of high-profile espionage cases in Russia. Scientists Igor Sutyagin and Valentin Danilov, as well as former FSB agent Mikhail Trepashkin, should be freed by Russia�s competent bodies without delay, the Assembly said.�
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