Head of Austrian delegation: Local MPs support Nowak's election across party lines
Strasbourg (OTS/ÖVP-PK) – “Manfred Nowak has full Austrian and cross-party support for tomorrow's election as Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights. He is the right candidate as he brings the necessary knowledge and experience”, underlines Reinhold Lopatka, who leads the Austrian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) which meets this week and is also Vice-President of PACE. Austria has held leadership positions in the Council of Europe in the past, which were filled by top politicians and experts.
In this regard, the member of the ÖVP National Council refers to the former Presidents of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the members of the SPÖ National Council Karl Czernetz and Peter Schieder as well as the former General Secretaries of the Council of Europe, as the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Lujo Toncic-Sorinj or the two former members of the ÖVP National Council, Franz Karasek and Walter Schwimmer. Furthermore, with the former Tyrolean governor and president of the state parliament Herwig Van Staa as president of the “Congress of Municipalities and Regions” of the Council of Europe, with Andreas Kiefer as general secretary of the “Congress of Municipalities and Regions” of the Council of Europe Europe, the second president of the Salzburg state parliament, Gudrun Mosler-Törnström, as president of the “Chamber of European Municipalities” as part of the Congress of the Council of Europe or the president of the Vorarlberg state parliament, Harald Sommeregger – who was president of the “ Chamber of European Regions” within the framework of the Congress of the Council of Europe since 2021 – other personalities from Austria have held important positions in the Council of Europe.
Lopatka: “Now university professor Nowak will be the next personality in this series. Austrian MPs are united in their support and will support him in tomorrow's elections.” Manfred Nowak, who, among other things, is professor of international law at the University of Vienna, scientific director and co-founder of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Human Rights, UN special rapporteur on torture and judge of the Human Rights Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has already made clear how he intends to shape his role as Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, if elected to this high position. “He sees repatriation of Ukrainian children who were abducted to Russia and Belarus as a central task. And is committed to continuing the role of the Council of Europe as a pioneer of human rights. Manfred Nowak is therefore in favor of filling the position of Rights Commissioner Humans as Ombudsman for the entire area covered by the Council of Europe, that is, for 46 European states. And for this he deserves broad support!”
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