Speeches

Mr President, Commissioner, the repression in Belarus has not stopped and has even increased in recent days. However, many initiatives have been taken to address this situation of lawlessness, but this is not enough. The sanctions mechanism imposed on the regime and its funding affiliates must be stronger, clearer and broader. It is also imperative that the European Union step up its action on the fight against impunity and support any mechanism for gathering and protecting evidence, so that the crimes that have been committed do not go unpunished. We also need to give more visibility to the people we support and thus call for a high-level mission to visit those people who are in prison. Finally, we must not give in to the indecent game of migration. The answer to this cynical game of illiberal regimes such as Turkey, Libya or Belarus is a migration policy worthy of the name, which guarantees the protection of migrants, but also guarantees the international law of their protection.

Madam President, Kyazike Reginah, who is a resident of the Kakuma refugee camp, was one of the people in Block 13 who were first awakened in their sleep by the sound of gunfire on 16 August. An hour later, it is the flames, the smell of fire and gasoline, that wake them up again in this camp, block 13. The next day, realising that they had nowhere to go, no shelter or protection, while the criminals roamed free, they decided unanimously, with 25 children, to make the three-hour journey to a police station. But at the police station, the refugees were taken in by police officers armed with guns and tear gas. This attack on refugees, and in particular LGBT refugees from Kakuma camp, is unfortunately not the only one. These people are the victims of attacks on a daily basis, there are hundreds of them last year. The human rights situation in general, but particularly that of LGBT people, is deplorable in Kakuma camp. The resolution effectively calls on the Kenyan authorities to respect freedom of opinion and expression, and reiterates their obligation to do so, but also to protect refugees and especially LGBT refugees. But this resolution also calls for the European Union to take part in its responsibility to be able to provide humanitarian protection to these people when they request it from the European Union.

Madam President, Commissioner, today’s urgency regarding Ahmed Mansoor, who is called the last human rights defender in the United Arab Emirates and who has been languishing in a desert prison since 2017, allows us to highlight the issue of human rights in the United Arab Emirates. Human Rights Watch widely documents human rights abuses in the United Arab Emirates. Arbitrary arrests of lawyers, judges, teachers, journalists. This is the daily situation of human rights defenders in the country. Therefore, in this context, we call in this resolution, of course, for the immediate release of Ahmed Mansoor, but also of all prisoners of conscience who are currently in the prisons of the United Arab Emirates, and for access to these prisons by experts from the United Nations, but also from international organisations. Finally, we express our concern that an Emirati official is at the head of Interpol when he himself is involved in serious repressions of human rights activists.

Madam President, are we experiencing human rights violations in Cuba? Yes, yes. Is there a shrinking of the area of freedom of expression in Cuba? Yes, yes. Are there laws today that are liberticidal laws in Cuba? Yes, yes. Unfortunately, this is not the only country where we live this reality and we obviously have to condemn them. We must give this message to the Cuban government that it is necessary to open up spaces of freedom. And to do so, we need dialogue between the European Union and Cuba, not isolation of Cuba from our relationship. But what amazes me in this Parliament is the double standard, the double language. And I will compare two situations, that of Cuba and that of Vietnam. Do you think Vietnam is a free country? Is not Vietnam run by a communist government that is a dictatorial regime? Yes, and yet the right wing of this Parliament has granted Vietnam a free trade agreement to help it get out of a dictatorship and the solution you are proposing for Cuba is to close the relationship with Cuba. And so this dual language regarding the issue of human rights is unacceptable. Let's be consistent. Let us defend human rights, whether in Vietnam or in Cuba (inaudible) or in Saudi Arabia, human rights are universal and do not depend on the continent you are on.

Madam President, Commissioner, first of all, I would like to thank Hilde for the outstanding and excellent work she has done in her report. This report does indeed give prominence to the issue of human rights in our relationship between the European Union and China. When we talk about human rights with China, we understand the gap between a European model and a Chinese model. Forced labour, re-education camps, persecution of different minorities, obstruction of freedom of expression and association and freedom of the press, arbitrary arrests of pro-democracy activists, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao, not to mention Tibet... But these massive violations of human rights that are being experienced in China, China is trying to export them through its partnerships with other countries, through multilateralism, in which it imposes a Chinese vision, but also sometimes in our private companies, where it pressures to dismiss people who have taken positions in favour of democracy, or even in this Parliament itself when it puts us under sanctions. In this report, therefore, we say how we should work with China, without naivety. Of course, China is a global player, but we must have strategic autonomy from the Chinese model.

Madam President, Mr High Representative, if we are sincere with what we claim to be defending today, namely the European values of human rights, I think there is only one priority: solidarity. Solidarity with Afghan women and men threatened by the Taliban regime today. Protecting those seeking asylum in Europe through a coordinated reception plan. Protect those who will remain in Afghanistan, most of them, by creating humanitarian corridors, but also by supporting the operators who will be there. But also the creation of a human rights monitoring mechanism as an aid to the decision to grant aid. And finally protect those who have already left and are welcomed in neighbouring countries. However, these neighbouring countries will also have to guarantee international reception standards if they wish to obtain assistance from the European Union.

Mr President, since 2011, the Specialised Criminal Court of Saudi Arabia has been used as a tool of repression to silence any form of expression of dissent. Those who have been convicted by this Court include human rights defenders, clerics, human rights activists, indicted for some of the crimes punishable by the death penalty, for simply peacefully expressing their views. Today, indeed, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that executes the most, like Iran, of which we have also spoken today. However, Saudi Arabia has undertaken not to execute young people who were minors at the time of the crime. This commitment was not respected. Evidence of this is the execution of Mustafa al-Darwish, who was executed two weeks ago. We therefore call on Saudi Arabia to honour its commitments and stop imposing the death penalty on minors at the time of the crime, in line with the obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. But we also call on Saudi Arabia to join the club of abolitionists of the death penalty. In the meantime, we ask for a moratorium in terms of executions.

Madam President, the arrest of the founder of Jimmy Lai and the cessation of the publication of the newspaper is another blow, and my colleague Bütikofer has listed all the difficulties faced today by pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong. Arbitrary arrests of journalists and peaceful protesters in recent years are obviously inadmissible, as is the new law today at the electoral level in Hong Kong. Let us remember that freedom of expression and information is a fundamental right enshrined in Hong Kong’s national and international law. All attempts to muzzle pro-democracy activists under the National Security Law must be condemned. I also call on the Council to swiftly impose targeted sanctions under the new EU comprehensive human rights sanctions regime on those who have obstructed this freedom in Hong Kong. Let us also not forget the importance of continuing to raise issues of serious human rights violations committed by China. Because Hong Kong, of course, is an example, here, of democratic countervalues imposed by China; But on Chinese territory, we have already had the opportunity to talk about the Uyghurs, Xinjiang, Tibet and all the other human rights violations on Chinese territory that we absolutely must prosecute.

Madam President, as has been said, Iran is the country that executes the most per capita, and it is not the election of Mr Raisi that will give us guarantees of easing the situation. It is therefore important to give strong messages from the European Union. Already in 2019, we voted on a resolution calling for the release of prisoners of conscience. In December 2020, in another resolution calling for the release of Nasrin Sotoudeh, we already called for a waiver of Mr Djalali’s execution and for his release. Today, Mr Djalali and Nasrin Sotoudeh are still in prison, like thousands of other political opponents in Iran. I will read a few words that Nasrin Sotoudeh wrote from the prison. She says: “I call on the government to end Iran’s animosity towards the world, to look at the world through the eyes of peace and to trust life and human beings. I call on human rights activists to help us in our peace efforts in Iran.” This is what we need to do as Europeans, as human rights activists. It is this urgent call that we will respond to, that we must respond firmly to the Iranian government, with all the tools at our disposal. Free Djalali and free all other political opponents today in Iran!

Mr President, Commissioner, it is true that Bangladesh, as has been said, is the sewing workshop of the world. Ready-to-wear accounts for 84% of its exports, mainly to the European Union. The Rana Plaza has shown the world the undersides of the so-called fast fashion which, in disrespect of social and environmental rights, has built a modern form of slavery. Today, the minimum wage for women in these companies is $67 per month, while the need for a household to live in Bangladesh is €360 per month – we see how wide the gap is. These multinational companies, such as H&M, C&A or Primark, continue to be irresponsible when they decide not to pay for orders because they could not sell them during COVID. So yes, these companies must be coerced. Of course, laws are needed here at EU level to ensure a value chain that respects social and environmental rights. Commissioner, there is no point in inciting them. This makes it possible to have certain advantages, certain guarantees, but it does not make it possible to change this model. Because the model they use is to sell more and more, always cheaper, and that is what they will do if they are not forced to do otherwise. It is our responsibility to coerce them.

Mr President, we said yesterday in plenary that what we voted on the comprehensive human rights sanctions mechanism is not called the Magnitsky Act. Today, however, I still see in the announcement of the results that what you call the vote concerns the Magnitsky Act. I sent an email to the EP services to correct, and I see again that the title is the same. I therefore call for this correction because there has been a political agreement among all political groups that this should not be called the ‘Magnitsky Act’, but the ‘global sanctions regime’. So I would like there to be a correction as regards the title.

Mr President, since the beginning of the conflict in Tigray in Ethiopia eight months ago, more than 400 000 people have plunged into famine today and more than 1.5 million people are at risk of starvation. It is one of the worst humanitarian crises in the region in the last decade. You have both said this, both to the Council and to the Commission: the first priority is, of course, respect for the ceasefire, access to humanitarian aid for all people at risk and the protection of civilians. But in the medium term, the European Union, the African Union and the entire international community will have to support all efforts for an inclusive dialogue between all communities in that country and also ensure that external military forces have left that country. The solution, as we know, cannot be military, but the perpetrators of serious human rights violations must be prosecuted if there is to be reconciliation, because there is no reconciliation with impunity.

Madam President, it is true that this may seem a bit special, as this general mechanism of sanctions for serious human rights violations was a request from the European Parliament. And already, we are in the process of wanting to make changes or asking for more. First of all, I would like to say that the European Parliament welcomed this general regime of sanctions for serious human rights violations, which the High Representative presented to the Council, and which was finally adopted by that Council. It is precisely because we consider this to be an important instrument for the European Union’s foreign policy that we consider it necessary to clarify certain points, but also to strengthen it in certain respects. That is why, together with my colleague, Mr McAllister, the AFET Committee and the Subcommittee on Human Rights, we wanted this resolution and a number of questions. As David McAllister has done, we are therefore asking – and we believe it is necessary – to give the European Parliament a greater role in establishing this process. I think it is important that we have this discussion, but above all, in the long term, that we can follow this mechanism. In the long term, we also need to review the unanimous decision of the Council, which does not seem to us to be the most effective decision-making decision. We must also have a clear methodology that allows us to draw up lists, but also to relieve a certain number of people, to know exactly how things could happen. It is also a question of providing for corruption to be included in the mechanism. So it is true, we have had debates on ‘whether corruption should be included in the mechanism or whether there should be a specific mechanism?’. I think what we can say is that we have to deal very quickly with the characteristics of corruption because they are inseparable from the question of the violation of human rights. It is also important to have cooperation with partner countries because we cannot actually be the refuge – for people who would have been sanctioned by some and similar mechanisms – to be the refuge in Europe for those people who could find shelter on European territory. Finally, there is a need for policy coherence: how to ensure that this general mechanism of sanctions related to serious violations is integrated into a set of tools that are external policy tools, which of course need to be coherent? All these questions are in the oral question, but also in our resolution.

Madam President, Mr High Representative, April 2018 was the beginning of civil demonstrations in Nicaragua and since then the violent repression has only increased and the human rights situation is extremely worrying: persecution of all political opponents, journalists, NGOs, but also indigenous communities. Anyone who opposes the government today is at risk of imprisonment or worse. We are now in this Parliament on the fifth resolution on Nicaragua. And as all my colleagues have said, I think there is a great consensus here in Parliament. We call, of course, for the release of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience; information on the lives of those who have disappeared; the reform of elections to ensure a free and transparent election; but also, as you said, Mr High Representative, today we are calling for the sanctions on government representatives to be extended. As we have also said, there is an instrument, the Association Agreement, under which we work with Nicaragua and through which Nicaragua committed itself to defending democracy. Is it possible today to suspend this Association Agreement?