PACE TURNS ITS ATTENTION TO THE CAUCASUS

Kommersant
June 24 2008
Russia

The summer session of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly
will probably be the most pleasant for Russia since it became a
member. Georgia was the topic of discussion yesterday, the first day
of the season. Human rights in Europe as a whole will be the topic this
week. Armenia is threatened with being denied its vote in the assembly
during the session, if it is found that the country is not meeting its
obligations. Azerbaijan will also be discussed as that country prepares
for presidential elections in October. Russia is not on the agenda.

The PACE session began with scandal yesterday as two British members,
Conservative David Wilshire and Liberal Democrat Michael Hancock,
declared that Great Britain was posed to pass a repressive law allowing
its police to hold suspects for 42 days without making charges against
them. The bill has already passed the House of Commons and will soon
be heard in the House of Lords. Russian PACE members Mikhail Margelov
and Konstantin Kosachev the petition of the British parliamentarians,
but it was decided that the law, which potentially violated the
European Convention on Human Rights, could not be discussed until it
had been passed.

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and China will be the center of attention
for the rest of the week. Armenia was given two months to implement
a number of democratic reforms at the last session of the assembly,
under threat of losing its vote. Its compliance will be discussed on
Wednesday. Probably to sugarcoat that pill, human rights in Azerbaijan,
whose delegates were the main critics of Armenia, will be the topic
of a report read on Tuesday. The recent Georgian parliamentary
elections were criticized on Monday as being no better than the
Russian presidential election.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress