Estonia: PACE seeks solutions to the post-pandemic situation

NordenBladet — The Estonian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is in Strasbourg, France, for the third part of the Assembly’s 2021 session.

The Head of the Estonian delegation Maria Jufereva-Skuratovski said that today’s sitting would focus on fighting the pandemic and defining the lessons learned, and would highlight the need to protect the fundamental rights in a changed situation. “Social inequality, psychological tension caused by the difficult situation, ensuring freedoms and rights – these are the key words of this event,” Jufereva-Skuratovski said.

The debate today will touch on the need for a more effective solidarity mechanism that would alleviate the migration pressure on the front line countries, and on the freedom of action and speech of incarcerated politicians in Catalonia and Turkey.

Tomorrow’s topics include media freedom and people’s right to information, socio-economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and its impact on the rights of children.

Maria Jufereva-Skuratovski will give a speech at a discussion on vaccine passports and protection of fundamental rights. “We need vaccine passports to restore life to normality, but our common goal is to reach a point where we could give these up,” she said.

The Wednesday meeting is dedicated to domestic violence against women to commemorate the 10^th anniversary of the Istanbul Convention. The head of the Estonian delegation is giving a speech during a discussion on opportunities to increase the participation of women from underrepresented groups in politics and public decision-making processes. Her speech to her colleagues emphasises that male politicians should act as equal partners to female politicians, and women should have the same political opportunities to participate and make decisions.

Members of the Estonian delegation to the PACE Eerik-Niiles Kross and Raivo Tamm will also take part in the event.