ARMENIAN DELEGATION TO PARTICIPATE PACE SUMMER SESSION IN STRASBURG

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.06.2009 11:41 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The National Assembly delegation chaired by the NA
Chairman Hovik Abrahamyan leaves for Strasbourg to attend Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe PACE summer session held in
Strasbourg on 22-26 June 2009, NA Public Relations department reports.

The parliamentary delegation includes Chief of Staff of the National
Assembly Gegham Gharibjanyan, Head of the Armenian delegation to PACE
Davit Harutyunyan, members of the PACE delegation Naira Zohrabyan,
Armen Rustamyan, Hermine Naghdalyan, Zaruhi Postanjyan, Grigor
Margaryan, Armen Melikyan, Artsruni Aghajanyan, other officials.

A biennial debate on "the state of human rights in Europe", focusing
on the need to eradicate impunity and the progress of the Assembly’s
monitoring procedure, is a highlight of the summer session of PACE. The
first ever PACE Human Rights Prize is due to be awarded at a ceremony
on this occasion.

Irish President Mary McAleese and Slovenian Prime Minister Borut
Pahor will address the parliamentarians. Other speakers include the
Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, Slovenian Foreign Minister
Samuel ~Nbogar, and Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis.

The election of the new Secretary General of the Council of Europe
is on the draft agenda. The Assembly will adopt its agenda at the
opening of the session. There has also been a request for an urgent
debate on the process for electing the Secretary General.

The Assembly will debate a proposal that its Bureau restore Special
Guest status to the Belarus Parliament, and will discuss the latest
in a series of reports on the functioning of democratic institutions
in Armenia.

Parliamentarians will also discuss the challenges of the financial
crisis to the world economic institutions, as well as the activities
of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 2008,
with a statement by its President Thomas Mirow.

They are also due to decide on the establishment of a "partner for
democracy" status with the Assembly, aimed at the parliaments of
neighboring countries who wish to espouse Council of Europe values.

Finally, the Assembly will consider a challenge to the credentials of
the Ukrainian delegation on substantial grounds, made by 20 members
of the Assembly.