Now the decision should be considered by the PACE Monitoring Committee and the Committee on Rules and Procedures (Regulatory).
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has backed Ukraine’s initiative to appeal the credentials of the Russian delegation.
The relevant initiative of Head of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE Maria Mezentseva was backed by 38 PACE members from over five delegations. These votes were enough to ensure an appeal, an UNIAN correspondent reports.
Boris Tsilevitch (Latvia), presiding over the assembly, said the corresponding initiative must be supported by 30 representatives from at least five delegations for Russian delegation’s credentials to be appealed.
Mezentseva proposed to appeal the Russian delegation’s credentials because of the policy of the Russian authorities aimed at violating political and civil freedoms, arrests of opposition leaders and hundreds of Russian citizens, violations of human rights in occupied Crimea, as well as violations of many PACE resolutions.
She reiterated persons from the territories occupied by the Russian Federation were illegally included in the Russian delegation to PACE.
Now, after appealing the Russian delegation’s credentials, the decision should be considered by the PACE Monitoring Committee and the Committee on Rules and Procedures (Regulatory). The monitoring committee within 24 hours must prepare a report and present it to the delegates on the situation with the observance of human rights in Russia, while the regulatory committee must prepare an opinion on the appeal of powers.
The PACE winter session is being held in Strasbourg on January 25-28.
Grounds for appealing Russian delegation’s credentials in PACE
During the opening of the session, Ukrainian delegates, as well as their colleagues from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Georgia planned to initiate a procedure for appealing the Russian delegation’s credentials, DW’s Ukrainian service reported.
According to the PACE regulations, procedural problems or substantive grounds could lead to an appeal. This includes a violation of Article 5 of the Charter of the Council of Europe, which states that each member state must respect the principle of the rule of law and guarantee to all its citizens the protection of their rights and fundamental freedoms.
If the initiative receives support, the issue will be considered by the PACE monitoring or regulatory committee. In its resolution, the committee may recommend to the assembly to confirm credentials, not to confirm them, or to confirm with restrictions.
Russia in PACE: Previous developments
In April 2014, PACE stripped the Russian delegation of the right to vote and expelled its representatives from all governing bodies of the Assembly over the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea.
Russia then refused to pay contributions to the Council of Europe as of June 2017. Many PACE members and politicians called such actions of Russia blackmail.
On June 25, 2019, PACE adopted a resolution that canceled the existing mechanism for imposing sanctions against delegations.
On June 26, 2019, PACE voted to ratify the credentials of the Russian delegation without imposing any sanctions. This allowed Russia to return to the Assembly’s session hall, and it reportedly resumed paying its contributions.
(c) Unian
My $5 says this useless organisation will contradict their own mandate of dedication to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law, by bending over for Russia. Every time this pathetic organisation turns a blind eye towards Russian atrocities, it’s credibility sinks even lower. I’m not sure it can sink much lower, but we’ll see.
If all the countries in PACE lived next door to such criminal neighbors they would all agree to this resolution. It is a lot easier sending troops to the front line than going there yourself.
This meaningless and unproductive entity has lost all credibility it still had when it allowed this crime syndicate to rejoin.
It’s bitter for Ukraine having to go this route in the first place. Mafia land should not be a member of PACE. By this measure, PACE has reduced itself to an utterly counterproductive entity with no morals and no use.
Ukraine should have pulled out of this fake organisation as soon as Macron & co had Russia reinstated.
Yes, but with a speech to the assembled morons telling them what hypocrites they are and how fucking useless they and their organization is.
I doubt even that would worry them too much, they are a shameless bunch of bastards.
Yes, I agree with you. But, it would still be nice if someone told them such things in their stupid faces.
I’m glad they are in it and add to the voices of the Baltics, Poland and others. There has to be somebody in Russia’s face every second so they don’t try to get away with murder. Oh wait…