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PACE winter sessions starts in Strasbourg today

23 January 2012 07:46 (UTC +04:00)

APAâ€™s European bureau reports that the PACE Political Bureau will approve the winter sessionâ€™s agenda. The main issue included in the sessionâ€™s first meeting is the election of PACE president, vice-presidents and committee members. Then PACE President Mevlut Chavushoglu will make a report on Progress report of the Bureau of the Assembly and the Standing Committee.

The reports on parliamentary elections in Morocco and Russia will be heard on January 23. Council of Europeâ€™s Secretary General ThorbjÃ¸rn Jagland will make a report on the organizationâ€™s activity.

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights will be elected on January 24. The mandate of the organizationâ€™s present commissioner Thomas Hammarberg ends on March 31 this year. Then the discussions will be held on the functioning of democratic institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The report of rapporteur of the Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media Muriel Marland-Militello named â€œThe right of everyone to participate in cultural lifeâ€ will be heard at the second half of the day. Statement by Director General of UNESCO Irina Bokova is also in the agenda. The hearings on guaranteeing the authority and effectiveness of the European Convention on Human Rights will be also held.

On January 25, Estonian rapporteur Andreas Herkel will make a report on situation in Belarus. Then Georgian FM Grigol Vashadze will make a speech.
President of Finland Tarja Halonen and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron will make a speech at the second half of the day.
Co-rapporteurs Davit Harutyunyan (Armenia) and Indrek Saar (Estonia) will make a report on the honoring of obligations and commitments by Serbia.

The hearings on topic â€œPromoting the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violenceâ€ will be held on January 26. Then Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg will make a report and answer the questions of the sessionâ€™s participants.

The session will continue for 5 days. No issue on Azerbaijan is included in the agenda.