PARIS, DECEMBER 10. /RIA Novosti correspondent Vitaly Dymarsky/. Leni Fischer, President of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, has expressed regret over the fact that Russia and Ukraine are not fulfilling the obligations they assumed upon entering the Council of Europe for the abolition of the death penalty. In a statement on the occasion of International Human Rights Day being observed today, she recalled that Russia and Ukraine had undertaken, in particular, to introduce a moratorium on the execution of already-passed death sentences, but "they continue to be carried out and much more frequently than before." According to Fischer, this situation should immediately be rectified.

The PACE President also expressed the hope that Belarus and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which have applied for admission to the CE "will change their policies and join the values of democracy and human rights." Leni Fischer called on Croatia "to observe the rights of the mass media." She reported that a reformed Eurropean Human Rights Court would start operating in the near future and called on all the member states of the Council of Europe to ratify the European Human Rights Convention.

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