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CoE Parliamentary Assembly opens with focus on urgent refugee question

Xinhua, April 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

"Refugees must be able to live in dignity and decent conditions," declared Anne Brasseur, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) during an address on Monday.

"It is our humanitarian duty to help these people because human rights are universal," she emphasized, adding that migration is an issue for all of Europe, and not just for "first entry" countries that receive the most refugees, such as Turkey and Italy.

Brasseur spoke to open the second part of the assembly's 2015 Ordinary Session, which is scheduled to run from Monday until Friday, and will feature an urgent debate on the crisis facing Europe with thousands of refugees dying per year while trying to reach the continent by boat across the Mediterranean.

Titled "The Human Tragedy in the Mediterranean: Immediate Action Needed," the urgent debate was requested on Monday during the assembly's first sitting, in light of the sinking of a refugee ship south of the Italian island of Lampedusa on Saturday night with fears that as many as 700 migrants have drowned.

"There is a tragedy going on as we speak in the Mediterranean and North Africa," Council of Europe (CoE) President Thorbjorn Jagland said during a press conference on Monday afternoon that was dedicated to the PACE initiative to end migrant children detention.

The PACE spring session will also include general assembly debates on mass surveillance, the humanitarian consequences of the activities of the terrorist group known as "Islamic State," and the use of drones and targeted killings.

In an unusual circumstance, the general assembly will debate professional sports ethics on Thursday, around a draft resolution on the reform of international football governance. The draft resolution centers on corruption allegations within FIFA during the selection of Qatar as host for the 2022 World Cup tournament and if passed in its current form, would call for the selection to be re-run.

The PACE general assembly meets four times a year, with weeklong sessions in January, April, June, and September, and concerning delegations from the 47 member states of the CoE. Endit