Once more, I had the opportunity to represent IFLRY at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, PACE, in Strasbourg 27-29 of April. During the 2nd part of the 2009 Ordinary Session, I was able to help the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) during their group meetings. The ALDE group meetings took up the preparations for the sessions, examination of the reports, appointments of spokesmen of the group in the plenary sessions and the discussions of the parliamentary elections in Albania and Bulgaria. Mr. Luc van den Brande and Mr. Thorbjørn Jaglund, candidates for Secretary General of the Council of Europe also paid visits to the group meetings. It is a bit unfortunate that no liberal candidate was running for the position as Secretary General.

In between the ALDE meetings, I went to listen to the plenary discussions. On Monday 27th, I enjoyed learning more about the protection of human rights in emergency situations and the fact that emergency powers should always be limited in time. The following day, I listened to a report on the situation of human rights defenders in Council of Europe member states. Later on, I went to listen the President of Finland, Mrs. Tarja Halonen’s address and her answers to questions from the members of the assembly. Among many subjects the President emphasized the importance of human rights, regulations to prevent violence and sexual exploration of women and children and how to survive the financial crisis with education, preparation and co-operation.

During Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, I attended two INGO seminars and a few more parliamentary assembly sessions. Two reports; Action to combat gender-based human rights violations, including abduction of women and girls and Follow-up given by Georgia and Russia to Resolution 1647 were presented by ALDE group members.

It was nice to meet the liberal politicians from all over Europe again and this time I knew more about the outcome of the meetings. I furthermore had the opportunity to take part in the Spring Asparagus Dinner on Monday evening that was arranged by the ALDE group in Erlach, Germany.

Sabine Nygrund