The UA Permanent delegation to PACE takes part in the Second part of the 2018 Ordinary Session
On April 23, the Second part of the 2018 PACE Ordinary Session opened.
“Our Assembly is not a battlefield to confront national agendas. On the contrary, it is a place where bridges between peoples and governments are built and where parliamentarians from all over Europe defend the common good – the fundamental values of human rights, democracy and the rule of law as concrete means to prevent conflicts and uphold peace on the continent,” PACE President Michele Nicoletti said in his opening speech of the PACE spring session in Strasbourg.
“Our Assembly should also give its contribution reflecting on how, in the present situation, conflicts within the states and among the states can be prevented and settled, being faithful to our ideal of peace through law,” Michele Nicoletti said.
He urged MPs to uphold the rule of law, by means that respect international law and within the framework of multilateral mechanisms that were created to maintain peace and security and stressed that the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security was lying with the UN Security Council.
At its spring session (Strasbourg, 23-27 April), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will look at states of emergency and derogations from the European Convention on Human Rights.
It will also discuss fighting organized crime through the confiscation of illegal assets, the funding of the terrorist group Daesh, as well the legal challenges and human rights obligations of hybrid war. A joint debate will address the issues of protecting editorial integrity and the status of journalists. The Council of Europe’s role in Libya and a report on the humanitarian needs of internally displaced persons are also on the agenda, as is a report on climate change and implementation of the Paris Agreement.
There have been requests for urgent debates on "Member States” respect for international rules-based agreements and principles in the context of the interventions by the Russian Federation in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and most recently in the United Kingdom and of a further recent transgression of international law by the regime in Syria and its sponsors", and on “Illegal elections of the President of the Russian Federation on the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea: a human rights violation” as well as on "Europe?s Role in Peace Making Initiative in Syria".
In the course of the general debate, a delegate from Ukraine O.Honcharenko noted that the decision of the Bureau to reject the urgent debate on the Russian Federation’s aggressive policy using chemical weapons in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Syria and its aggression in Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia had only been adopted by a small majority. He then suggested voting for consideration of this important issue at the meeting to include it on the agenda.
"This issue is one of the most important problems Europe is facing at the moment. The world community witnessed the use of chemical weapons in the United Kingdom and Syria, aggression in Ukraine, along with illegal elections in the occupied territory of Ukraine, all of which have taken place for the first time in the history of the Council of Europe since the Second World War," said the Ukrainian parliamentarian.
(Entitled to updates)