In his final report to the Parliamentary Assembly, Dick Marty said: “The abuse of state secrecy deprives parliaments from being able to exercise their prerogatives of oversight. It is an abuse which short-circuits the judiciary and the justice system.”
Journalists face violence with increasing impunity, according to Dunja Mijatović, the OSCE’s representative on freedom of the media.
The Secretary General says: “The Council of Europe remains ready to work closely with the authorities in Azerbaijan to bring fundamental freedoms, particularly those concerning freedom of expression and of assembly, to the level that citizens can legitimately expect.”
The Parliamentary Assembly’s grant of ‘Partnership for Democracy’ status to the Palestinian National Council is hailed as “an important event” by Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland and an “important achievement,” by Salim Al-Za’noon, Speaker of the Palestinian National Council.
“Serbia has a positive obligation to do everything within its power to protect and enforce the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the convention,” writes Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland in a letter to President Boris Tadic.
