Inside News on Odessa and Ukraine
The latest CPT, (or Council of Europe European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment) has just been released relating to Ukraine. Just as grim a read as it was in 2009. It seems there have been no improvements under this government compared to the last one. One wonders […]
The world is full of good causes and those in need of assistance - regardless of whether a nation is developed, developing, or indeed not much more than a failed state. For me it has always been a bit of a dilemma what to support and what I won’t. When I ran my companies in […]
Only a few days ago I wrote a short entry stating PACE/Council of Europe had eventually defined “political prisoner“. The definition is thus: “A person deprived of his or her personal liberty is to be regarded as a “political prisoner”: a. if the detention has been imposed in violation of one of the fundamental guarantees […]
Very quietly and without much fanfare, on Thursday the Council of Europe (PACE) eventually committed itself to a legal definition of who can be classified as a “political prisoner”. Needless to say it will have some ramifications for all CoE member states as well as the ECfHR, be those ramification great or small. It necessarily […]
Whilst doing a bit of research, I had occasion to re-read the European Charter of Local Self-Government, to which I should add, Ukraine is a ratified signatory. In respect of Ukraine, from an empirical perspective, it would certainly seem to be failing - although not a complete failure. As is quite typical of the current […]
Two days ago saw the EU appoint its first ever dedicated Special Representative for Human Rights in the person of Stavros Lambrinidis. Undoubtedly he will be working closely with Baroness Ashton and the EEAS (European External Action Service) amongst others within the European Commission. Needless to say, prima facie it seems a good thing and […]
The recent PACE/Council of Europe draft resolution on “The functioning of democratic institutions in Ukraine” has had the Ukrainian media, whether favourable to the government or unfavourable to the government, picking and choosing selected parts of the 15 page resolution without linking to the entire document. Well as you can see, above there is a […]
The Council of Europe (PACE) is due to adopt yet another resolution over the democratic institutions of Ukraine on 26th January. For anybody counting, that will be the third such resolution within the past five years. Maybe they would have made even more resolutions than that if Ukraine had not held the presidency of PACE […]
Well, here is the official Council of Europe report on the Russian Duma elections. One wonders if come October 2012, a similar report on Ukraine will be forthcoming. One hopes they have saved the document, as it may very well be a case of delete Russia, insert Ukraine, one or two minor amendments, leaving the […]
Blimey! Did you know there is no international treaty relating to the manufacture and sale of counterfeit medical products? I mean seriously, there are international treaties on the thickness of custard, the transparency of maple syrup and the fruit content of chunky marmalade, but when it comes to knocking out a few million fake aspirin […]