Motion for a resolution | Doc. 13128 | 31 January 2013

Monitoring political prisoners in all Council of Europe member States

Signatories: Mr Luca VOLONTÈ, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Pedro AGRAMUNT, Spain, EPP/CD ; Mr David BAKRADZE, Georgia, EPP/CD ; Ms Rossana BOLDI, Italy, EDG ; Ms Sílvia Eloïsa BONET PEROT, Andorra, SOC ; Ms Lolita ČIGĀNE, Latvia, EPP/CD ; Mr Michael CONNARTY, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Telmo CORREIA, Portugal, EDG ; Mr Renato FARINA, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Valeriu GHILETCHI, Republic of Moldova, EPP/CD ; Mr Mogens JENSEN, Denmark, SOC ; Mr Ferenc KALMÁR, Hungary, EPP/CD ; Mr Giorgi KANDELAKI, Georgia, EPP/CD ; Ms Elvira KOVÁCS, Serbia, EPP/CD ; Ms Meritxell MATEU PI, Andorra, ALDE ; Mr Frano MATUŠIĆ, Croatia, EPP/CD ; Mr José MENDES BOTA, Portugal, EPP/CD ; Mr João Bosco MOTA AMARAL, Portugal, EPP/CD ; Mr Gebhard NEGELE, Liechtenstein, EPP/CD ; Mr Grigore PETRENCO, Republic of Moldova, UEL ; Ms Carmen QUINTANILLA, Spain, EPP/CD ; Mr Serhiy SOBOLEV, Ukraine, EPP/CD ; Mr Giacomo STUCCHI, Italy, EDG ; Ms Chiora TAKTAKISHVILI, Georgia, ALDE ; Mr Egidijus VAREIKIS, Lithuania, EPP/CD ; Mr Jordi XUCLÀ, Spain, ALDE ; Ms Marie-Jo ZIMMERMANN, France, EPP/CD

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

Over the last years, and most recently during the October 2012 and January 2013 part-sessions, the Parliamentary Assembly has rightly discussed the very serious problem of political prisoners.

In particular, during the debates in plenary sittings, there was a common interest to assess the situation of political prisoners in all member States of the Council of Europe, starting from the definition of political prisoners recently approved by the Assembly itself.

The Assembly should therefore ban the arrest, conviction, imprisonment of citizens of the Council of Europe member States because of their personal political views.