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PACE to hold debate on Belarus on January 27

 

The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) will hold an urgent debate on the post-election situation in Belarus on January 27, BelaPAN said.

The PACE Bureau made the decision to set the debate for Thursday on January 24, the opening day of the Assembly's winter session in Strasbourg, according to the PACE press office.

Anne Brasseur, chairperson of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group in PACE formally requested a debate on the situation in Belarus on January 13.

Sinikka Hurskainen, PACE’s rapporteur on Belarus, is expected to make a speech at the debate. A resolution is to be adopted as a result of the event.

Belarus’ national legislature held Special Guest status in PACE between 1993 and 1997. The status was suspended in 1997 following a November 1996 national referendum condemned by foreign observers as undemocratic. Shortly after that, Belarus’ application to join the Council of Europe was frozen, and it remains the only European nation that is not a member of the organization.

In June 2009, PACE decided that the Belarusian parliament’s Special Guest status in the Assembly might be restored only after Minsk declared a moratorium on the death penalty.

However, in April 2010, PACE adopted a resolution providing for the suspension of high-level contacts with the Belarusian government because of a “lack of progress” toward Council of Europe standards and a “lack of political will” on the part of the authorities to adhere to the values of the Council of Europe.