Council of Europe

BRUSSELS – Those accused of organ harvesting and trafficking crimes that are the subject of a report by former Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty will be tried before a special court in The Hague and not in Pristina as sought by the Kosovo government, Tanjug has learned from diplomatic sources in Brussels.

Europe's top human rights official has called on the Greek government to drop plans to include a clause in a draft immigration law that would allow for the deportation of migrants deemed to have made false claims of abuse by law enforcement officials.

FRANKFURT - The Human Rights Advisory Panel (HRAP) of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) recommended in its annual report for 2013 that UNMIK publicly acknowledges its mistakes to which the families of the missing persons had pointed, and recommended to the European Union Rule of Law Mission (EULEX) to conduct an investigation and provide compensation to the fam

The Council of Europe's human rights commissioner Nils Muiznieks called on the Montenegrin authorities on Sunday to educate health professionals and adopt strict guidelines in order to prevent selective abortions.

According to the UN, some 100 girls are born for every 110 boys in Montenegro, while the usual ratio is 100 to 102-104.

NIS - The festival entitled “The Days of the European Film”, which will showcase films made in 32 member states of the Council of Europe, is taking place in Nis, southern Serbia, and for this city the entire year will be marked by the European film.

The festival will show movies from Germany, Hungary, Denmark, France, Italy, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovenia, Portugal and other countries.

BELGRADE - The Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) is the only domestic organization that requested and got accreditation from the national electoral commission (RIK) for monitoring early parliamentary elections, while foreign observers showed greater interest in that.

BRUSSELS - John Clint Williamson,lead prosecutor for the EULEX Special Investigative Task Force investigating the allegations presented in the report by Dick Marty,returned from a two-day visit to Pristina on Tuesday, where he underlined the need for bringing the investigation into the human organ trafficking to a close without pre-judgment and speculation.

BELGRADE - The deadline for international observers applying to monitor the upcoming early parliamentary elections in Serbia expires on Thursday, while domestic observes have four more days to submit their applications to the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK).

COPENHAGEN - Parliamentarians of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will arrive in Serbia next week to take part in an observation mission to the parliamentary elections on March 16.

BELGRADE - Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic met on Tuesday with member of the French parliament and former president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Jean-Claude Mignon and thanked him for the support for Serbia's EU integration and efforts to solve the Kosovo issue.