Since 2015, Oleksii Goncharenko has been a member of Ukraine’s delegation to PACE. Throughout all these years, he has been criticizing Russia for violating human rights. In 2019, Oleksii became one of the initiators of contesting the powers of the Russian delegation and the appointment of PACE Vice President Pyotr Tolstoy, the person who made lots of anti-Semitic, Ukrainian-phobic and Europhobic statements. Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe in March, 2022.
Oleksii has had a lot of experience within committees and sub-committees of PACE.
23.01.2024 — now — President of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons.
2022-2024 — Second Vice-Chairperson, Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons.
Since 2021 — Full Member, Sub-Committee on Human Rights.
Since 2020 — Full Member, Sub-Committee on Diasporas and Integration.
Since 2020 — Full Member, Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons.
2018-2019 — Vice-Chairperson, Sub-Committee on Relations with the OECD and the EBRD.
2016-2019 — Full Member, Sub-Committee on Relations with the OECD and the EBRD.
2016-2019 — Full Member, Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy.
During his speeches in the Parliamentary Assembly, he criticized Moscow for human rights violations in the temporarily occupied Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, fought against Russian propaganda and narratives that the Kremlin planted through its delegates in PACE.
On 9 October 2018, Oleksii Goncharenko spoke at a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in large rubber gloves. He said that without gloves it would be «unsafe to shake hands and touch door handles», hinting at the accusations of Russia in the poisoning of Skripals.
He repeatedly raised the issue of human rights violations in Belarus and the illegal actions of the Lukashenka regime. The Secretary General of the Council of Europe and the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe supported the creation of a special group that would be able to monitor and follow the situation in Belarus following Olekii’s many statements on the issue. Belarus is not a member of the Council of Europe, therefore it does not have its own delegation there but Goncharenko actively promotes the topic of sanctions against the dictatorial regime of Lukashenko in Belarus and works towards the state’s democratization.
Even before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Goncharenko advocated for Europe’s abandonment of Russian gas and the launch of Nord Stream 2. An information campaign “Less Russian gas” was organized in PACE by him. The emphasis was on the fact that the transportation of Russian gas through gas pipelines causes significant damage to the planet’s ecology as a large amount of methane enters the atmosphere. As it turned out, the Russian Federation is No. 1 in terms of methane pollution on the planet.
During the spring session of the PACE in 2022, he actively advocated the creation of an international tribunal to investigate Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine. As a result, the PACE called for the urgent establishment of such a tribunal shortly thereafter. In his speeches, he urgently called to recognize Russia as a dictatorship and continue to arm Ukraine. Oleksii also actively promotes his political views by submitting amendments to the resolutions adopted at the PACE’s sessions.
Goncharenko opposes the participation of Belarusian and Russian athletes in the Olympics in Paris. Actively supported and promoted the resolution on this issue in PACE.
On January 24, 2022, he was appointed as a Vice President of the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons. In January 2024, Oleksii was appointed as the first Ukrainian ever President of the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons.
Here is a list of some of Oleksii’s most prominent speeches given recently in PACE:
