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Bucharest and Brussels, 16 Nov. (AKI) - Romania, one two countries accused by Europe's top human rights watchdog of hosting secret CIA jails used to interrogate Islamist terrorism suspects, says it has written to the European Union executive denying the charges. The letter to the European Commission is a response to a request from EU justice and security commissioner Franco Frattini asking Romania and Poland - the other country implicated by the Council of Europe - for an explanation. A Romanian spokeswoman in Brussels, Doris Mircea, said that a committee of inquiry set up by the government concluded that the...

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Explains Stand on Homosexuality to Council of Europe "Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin" By John-Henry Westen STRASBOURG, October 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In his first visit to the Council of Europe on a     mission to discuss inter-religious dialogue, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexy II, gave a spirited defence of Christian morality. He noted that the notion of human rights in Europe stems, at least in part from Christian morality. "Yet today there occurs a break between human rights and morality, and this break threatens the European civilization," he warned. "We can see...

DUBLIN: Ireland said yesterday it had appointed a member of the country’s small but growing Muslim community to be its representative on the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). Mazhar Ali Bari replaces former government minister Chris Flood on the ECRI, a body of the Council of Europe. - AFP "I am delighted that Dr Bari has accepted this role," Justice Minister Michael McDowell said in a statement. "He comes to ECRI with a wealth of experience and ideas and I am confident that he will perform his role with the same dedication and energy that he has shown...

MOSCOW. (Vyacheslav Igrunov for RIA Novosti) - The political crisis in Ukraine has been resolved, but uncertainty persists. The new government is still suffering from the painful compromise that brought about its establishment. On the one hand, most key posts in the government have been given to people free of ideological intoxication and capable of constructive, pragmatic actions. They know why gas should be stored in underground depots in summer, why international commitments should be honored, and why their country should not clash with those on whom its development depends. They are First Deputy Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and Naftogaz...

Italy, Poland fail to settle issue of ‘secret prisons’ By Daniel Dombey in London Published: March 1 2006 18:13 | Last updated: March 1 2006 18:13 Italy and Poland have failed to dispel suspicions that they have broken European law by colluding with the US over “secret prisons” and extra-legal abductions, the 46-nation Council of Europe said on Wednesday. The human rights body said the two countries had failed to give clear answers to questions about their possible involvement in illegal activities by foreign intelligence agencies. Council of Europe member states are legally bound to respond to such inquiries. “I...

Some of France's prisons are "totally at odds with a modern society's requirements," according to a scathing report on the French justice system released on Wednesday. The report, by the Council of Europe, says the courts are overworked and underfunded, the police tend to act with a sense of impunity and defence lawyers need better access to their clients. Prisons are overcrowded, in part because thousands of people are held in them while either waiting for trial or in preventive detention, it says.

MPs condemn communist-era crimes Russian communists still honour Lenin every year Parliamentarians from across Europe have condemned the crimes committed under communism. The Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly said it "strongly condemned the massive human rights violations" committed in the old Soviet bloc. The council - a European human rights watchdog - has 46 member states. Its parliamentary assembly meets four times a year to debate human rights issues. Communists and many socialists in the assembly opposed the resolution. The resolution called on all communist or post-communist parties among the member states to condemn past communist abuses "without any ambiguity"....

Strasbourg, 24.01.2006 – It is highly unlikely that European governments, or at least their intelligence services, were unaware of the “rendition” of more than a hundred persons affecting Europe, according to Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly investigator Dick Marty, whose interim assessment was made public today in an information memorandum. Citing statements made by American officials and others, Mr Marty said there was “a great deal of coherent, convergent evidence pointing to the existence of a system of ‘relocation’ or ‘outsourcing’ of torture”. He added: “It has been proved – and in fact never denied – that individuals have...

From Bangladesh to Paris, speaking out against Islamic outrages can get you in serious trouble --- and worse Now that Baby New Year is taking over again from Father Time, the observant celebrant might notice something new. In addition to the traditional top hat and diaper, and besides the 2006 banner across his chest, Baby New Year has something else in his kit: a gag. That's because 2006 is shaping up to be the "Year of Speaking Dangerously." This isn't to suggest that 2005 was a banner year for freedom of speech. But the reaction, tepid at best, to significantly...

The Council of Europe (CoE), [not the same as the EU, ScaniaBoy] an organisation of 46 European countries, has criticised the Danish government for invoking the “freedom of the press” in its refusal to take action against “insulting” cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The CoE Committee of Ministers discussed the case during a meeting in Strassburg last week. In a statement the Committee said that “a seam of intolerance” is noted in certain Danish media – a reference to the Danish cartoon case. According to Islam it is blasphemy to depict the Prophet Muhammad. Last Summer a Danish writer complained...

BERLIN - The United States has told the European Union it needs more time to respond to media reports that the CIA set up secret jails in some European nations and transported terror suspects by covert flights, the top EU justice official said Monday. Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini also warned that that any of the 25 bloc nations found to have operated secret CIA prisons could have their EU voting rights suspended. The Council of Europe — the continent's main human rights watchdog — is investigating the allegations, and EU justice official Jonathan Faul last week formally...

STRASBOURG, France - A top Islamic official on Tuesday criticized the West for what he called "demonizing" Islam following the Sept. 11 attacks, warning against attributing individual crimes to an entire religion. Even though the attacks were condemned by Muslims, "the majority in the West ... never paused for one second to look back and ask since when an act of individuals could be the reason to condemn one fifth of humanity," said Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, chairman of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the world's largest Muslim group. Addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the continent's leading...

Putin Promises to Correct Human Rights Situation in Russia Russian president Vladimir Putin said Russia will implement the recommendations laid down in the report of the Council of Europe Human Rights Commission. Speaking at a meeting with CE commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles, Putin said Russian authorities will work strenuously during the next two years to eliminate defects notified in the report. Russian president quoted by RIA-Novosti news agency called the document “rather strict in some points but rather objective.” The report was prepared after the commissioner’s visits to Russia in July and September 2004. Gil-Robles presented the results to the CE...

Bush pushes for cybercrime treaty By Declan McCullagh Staff Writer, CNET News.com President Bush has asked the U.S. Senate to ratify the first international cybercrime treaty. In a letter to the Senate on Monday, Bush called the Council of Europe's controversial treaty "an effective tool in the global effort to combat computer-related crime" and "the only multilateral treaty to address the problems of computer-related crime and electronic evidence gathering." Even though the United States is a nonvoting member of the Council of Europe, it has pressed hard for the cybercrime treaty as a way to establish international criminal standards related...