Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

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Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Logo
History
Founded	10 August 1949
Leadership
President	Theodoros Roussopoulos[1]
Secretary General	Despina Chatzivassiliou-Tsovilis[2][3]
Seats	306
Meeting place
Palace of Europe, Strasbourg, France
Website
pace.coe.int

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

The Assembly is made up of 306 members drawn from the national parliaments of the Council of Europe's member states, and meets four times a year for week-long plenary sessions in Strasbourg.

It is one of the two statutory bodies of the Council of Europe, along with the Committee of Ministers, the executive body representing governments, with which it holds an ongoing dialogue.^[4] However, it is the Assembly which is usually regarded as the "motor" of the organisation, holding governments to account on human rights issues, pressing states to maintain democratic standards, proposing fresh ideas and generating the momentum for reform.

The Assembly held its first session in Strasbourg on 10 August 1949, embodying at that time the hopes of many Europeans who, in the aftermath of World War II, saw European unity as the best way of preventing a return to the devastation of war, a "safety net" to prevent gross human rights violations such as the horrors of The Holocaust, and a democratic bulwark against tyranny.

Among the Assembly's main achievements are:

• ending the death penalty in Europe by requiring new member states to stop all executions;
• making possible, and providing a blueprint for, the European Convention on Human Rights;
• high-profile reports exposing violations of human rights in Council of Europe member states;
• assisting former Soviet countries to embrace democracy after 1989;
• inspiring and helping to shape many progressive new national laws;
• helping member states to overcome conflict or reach consensus on divisive political or social issues; and
• adopting the Flag of Europe and the Anthem of Europe, both later taken up by the European Union.^[5][6]