PACE summer session to start next week

The debates on the alleged secret detentions in Council of Europe member states, as well as on the balance between freedom of expression and respect for religious beliefs – are among highlights of the summer plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which takes place in Strasbourg from June 26 to 30, 2006. According to the web page of the Council of Europe, debates on the consequences of the referendum in Montenegro and on constitutional reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina will take place. Other subjects for discussion include the position of the Assembly as regards Council of Europe member and observer states which have not abolished the death penalty, the human rights of irregular migrants, and domestic violence against women etc. Jean Lemierre, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, will take part in the Assembly’s annual debate on the contribution of the EBRD to economic development in central and Eastern Europe. The Romanian senator Ilie Ilascu, ex-politic prisoner of the unrecognized regime from Tiraspol announced a week ago that he will request to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to withdraw Russia’s chairmanship from the Ministers’ Committee of the Council of Europe, which it holds since May, as well as suspending the voting right of the Russian Federation within this organization. Ilascu declared that he will require this on the ground that the Russian Federation does not comply with the decision of the ECHR regarding the release of those 2 political prisoners arrested in Transnistria – Andrei Ivantoc and Tudor Petrov Popa.