STRASBOURG - In the opening address of her last parliamentary session in office, President Anne Brasseur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) judged here on Monday that Europe had experienced the degradation of human rights during her two-year mandate. “The past two years were not good for human rights and for the values that our organization is defending,” the PACE president declared. Brasseur listed the European refugee crisis, a rise in radicalism, terrorist attacks that have rattled the continent, and also conflict in Ukraine as sources of concern troubling the Council of Europe (CoE), its 47 member states and neighboring countries.

Finding some cause for hope, however, the PACE president also saw some positive developments, particularly in the struggle against discrimination and hate following the Paris Charlie Hebdo attacks which shocked onlookers around the world. The outgoing leader, who will serve until January 2016, when the PACE assembly will elect a new president, still felt that “the challenges that our values are facing are enormous.” She urged unity from her fellow parliamentarians in confronting these challenges. Among those difficulties to be faced, Brasseur regretted that in some member states, NGOs struggled to operate freely due to “Restrictive laws, complex and inappropriate administrative procedures, pressure, intimidation and reprisals,” a situation she found inappropriate in CoE member states. She also urged parliamentarians to take concerted action on the European refugee crisis, which will be the center of three migration-themed debates to be held on Wednesday afternoon. The debates will focus on the need to review Europe’s asylum policies,  and also the unique challenges faced by transit countries such as Italy, Greece and Hungary.(Xinhua)