First ordinary Autumn Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has begun in Strasbourg today, and it will last until Friday, 14 October.  Debates are foreseen on the political consequences of the Ukraine conflict and on legal remedies for human rights violations in areas not under Ukrainian control, lessons from the "Panama Papers" to ensure fiscal and social justice, as well as co-operation with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The agenda of the session includes discussion on the protection of unaccompanied migrant minors, activities of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in the period 2015-2016 and rights of children with regard to surrogate mothers.

During the Autumn Session, MPs will be addressed by President of the Republic of France Mr François Hollande, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Germany Mr Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey Mr Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Mr Jürgen Ligi, in capacity of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, will speak about activities of the Committee in the period from the past OSCE session, while Secretary General of the Council of Europe Mr Thorbjørn Jagland will answer parliamentary questions.

At the beginning of today’s session, the Assembly considered proposals for extending the agenda by debates on current issues. PACE decided to extend the agenda of the session by the discussion on the situation in Turkey in the light of the attempted coup d'Etat, which will be held on Tuesday.

In the afternoon part of today’s session, PACE President Pedro Agramunt awarded Václav Havel Prize to Ms Nadia Murad, member of the Yazidi nation who managed to escape ISIS slavery, and draw attention of world public to problems and plight of the Yazidi community.  The Václav Havel Human Rights Prize is established four years ago,to reward outstanding civil society action in defence of human rights.

During day one of the Session, meetings of political groups were held, as well as meeting of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination, Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development, Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and Monitoring Committee.