2019 Ordinary Session ______
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AA19CR12 AS (2019) CR 12 2019 ORDINARY SESSION ________________ (Second part) REPORT Twelfth sitting Tuesday 9 April 2019 at 10 a.m. In this report: 1. Speeches in English are reported in full. 2. Speeches in other languages are reported using the interpretation and are marked with an asterisk 3. The text of the amendments is available at the document centre and on the Assembly’s website. Only oral amendments or oral sub-amendments are reproduced in the report of debates. 4. Speeches in German and Italian are reproduced in full in a separate document. 5. Corrections should be handed in at Room 1059A not later than 24 hours after the report has been circulated. The contents page for this sitting is given at the end of the report. F – 67075 Strasbourg Cedex | [email protected] | Tel: + 33 3 88 41 2000 | AS (2019) CR 12 (Ms Maury Pasquier, President of the Assembly, took the Chair at 10 a.m.) The PRESIDENT* – The sitting is open. At this morning’s meeting of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, many amendments were tabled to the proposed text of the Kox report. The Secretariat is in the process of updating the text and will publish the final report, with the compendium of amendments, as soon as possible. In view of the time it will take to complete this work and to give members as much time as possible to consider the text, I have decided to move the deadline from 4 p.m. this afternoon to 6 p.m. this afternoon. 1. Election of judges to the European Court of Human Rights in respect of Malta and Turkey The PRESIDENT* – Dear colleagues, the order of business calls for us today to vote for two judges for the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of two countries. You can find the curricula vitae in Documents 14846, 14840 and 14855 Addendum 2. The voting for both elections will take place in the area behind the President’s chair. At 1 p.m. the ballot will be suspended. It will reopen at 3.30 p.m. and close at 5 p.m. Counting will take place under the supervision of four tellers, whom we shall now appoint by the drawing of lots. The names of Mr Soleim, Ms Gafarova, Ms Pashayeva and Ms Gunay have been drawn. They should go to the back of the President’s chair at 5 p.m. I hope to announce the results of the election before the end of the sitting this afternoon. If we need a second round of these elections for judges to the Court from Malta and Turkey respectively, a second ballot will take place on Wednesday in the morning and afternoon sittings. 2. Joint debate: Strengthening co-operation with the United Nations in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals: synergy needed on the part of all stakeholders, from parliaments to local authorities The PRESIDENT* – We now come to the joint debate on two reports. We will first hear Mr Adão Silva present his report, “Strengthening co-operation with the United Nations in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, on behalf of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy. We will also hear from Ms Petra Bayr, who will present the opinion of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination to that report. Subsequently, Ms Jennifer de Temmerman will present her report, “Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals: synergy needed on the part of all stakeholders, from parliaments to local authorities”, on behalf of the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development. I remind members that yesterday morning the Assembly decided that speaking time would be limited to three minutes in this debate. We will have to finish, vote included, by 12.15 p.m., so I will interrupt the list of speakers at about 11.55 a.m. to allow time for the replies and the votes. I remind rapporteurs that each of them has a speaking time of 13 minutes in total, which you may divide between presentation of the report and reply to the debate. Without further ado, I give the floor to Mr Adão Silva, rapporteur of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy. You have the floor, sir. Mr SILVA (Portugal) – Madam Chair, dear colleagues, in December 2016 the Sub-Committee on External Relations visited New York and I had a series of meetings with United Nations officials. During the visit, many of our counterparts shared with us concerns about the increasing threat and challenge to universal human rights. Moreover, they were worried that the role of key international organisations such as the United Nations was being questioned. More generally, they spoke of the crisis of multilateralism. These concerns were publicly expressed on numerous occasions by the United Nations Secretary- General, António Guterres. At the opening of the new section of the United Nations General Assembly last September, he stated: “Together, as guardians of the common good, we also have a duty to promote and support a reformed, reinvigorated and strengthened multilateral system. We need commitment to a rules- based order, with the United Nations at its centre and with the different institutions and treaties that bring the Charter to life. And we need to show the added value of international co-operation by delivering peace, defending human rights and driving economic and social progress for women and men everywhere.” In these circumstances it is all the more important that the United Nations as a global organisation can rely in its work 2 AS (2019) CR 12 on regional partners, in particular values-based partners such as the Council of Europe. That was the starting point of this report. As I worked on the report, I realised the importance of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development for overall United Nations activities. As a result, I decided to focus my report mainly, but not exclusively, on the contribution of the Council of Europe to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its sustainable development goals and ways to enhance that. The Council of Europe and the United Nations have been co-operating in many fields since 1951. This co-operation is founded on the community of values and purposes both organisations established in the aftermath of the Second World War, which are meant to protect peace based on respect for human rights. The Council of Europe and the United Nations are complementary in fulfilling their respective statutory goals. You may find in section 2 of the report an overview of our co-operation, and you will see that issues relating to the protection of human rights are at the heart of it. This co-operation must be further enhanced. Moreover, the Council of Europe as an important multilateral player at European level must contribute more actively to United Nations efforts in addressing key global challenges. In this context I stress the importance of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted at the global summit held at the United Nations in September 2015. The 2030 Agenda sets out an ambitious transformational vision. It aims to build an inclusive society by addressing the main problems of the modern world. The universality of sustainable development and interdependence among our nations are key principles. The old cleavages between north and south and developed and developing countries must be overcome, and the progress of the global community is only possible through the progress of each member State. The agenda aims to achieve sustainable development in three dimensions, economic, social and environmental, in a balanced and integrated manner. The agenda recognises the dignity of humanity and of individuals and it stresses the universal character of the SDGs and targets which are to be met by all nations and peoples and all segments of society. The agenda contains the 17 SDGs which must be completed by 2030. Section 3 of my report provides basic information on this ambitious document, which will mobilise the efforts of the entire international community in the coming years. For the first time the 2030 Agenda puts the emphasis on human rights, the rule of law and good governance through democratic institutions, which are an integral part of sustainable development. Accordingly, there is a direct link between the agenda and the core values on which the Council of Europe is founded. That is why the agenda is very relevant to our activities, and that is why I believe that our co-operation with the United Nations must be focused on implementing the SDGs. I remind colleagues that the primary responsibility for achieving the SDGs lies with the national authorities of our member States. Regional organisations such as the Council of Europe can facilitate the effective translation of global sustainable development policies into concrete actions at the national level. The Council of Europe is already contributing to the implementation of 13 SDGs. Some examples of them are provided in section 4 of my report; the list is far from exhaustive, but I am sure we can do much more on this. The main strength of the Council of Europe is its system of conventions. We have over 210 conventions and more than 160 of them are open to non-member States. The effectiveness of our conventions is ensured by monitoring and follow-up bodies and processes which assess member States’ compliance on the basis of measurable benchmarks and indicators. Many SDGs and specific targets corelate with obligations under relevant Council of Europe conventions. As a result, our member States are legally bound to comply with the 2030 Agenda goals and targets.