Continued investment in human rights is needed", stress DROI MEPs after a two-day visit to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva. The head of the DROI Delegation, MEP Andrzej GRZYB (EPP, PL), acknowledged that the year marking the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is an important moment to reflect on all the invaluable work done in the field of human rights.
In light of Senator Leila De Lima's first year of detention, MEP Soraya Post, who headed the Human Rights Subcommittee delegation to the Philippines in July 2017, made a statement on 24 February: "February 24 2018 will mark Senator Leila De Lima's first year of detention at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Manila, where she remains to this day without due judicial process to prove her supposed crimes".
Alarmed by this new attack on freedom of expression in Bahrain, the Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), Mr Pier Antonio Panzeri, made the following statement: "Shortly after the seventh anniversary of the 14 February 2011 protest movement calling for democratic reform and respect for human rights in Bahrain, the new sentence handed down to Nabeel Rajab is further proof of the ongoing crackdown against civil society and dissidents in Bahrain."
A delegation from the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), joined by Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee MEPs as well as Members of the ASEAN Delegation visited Myanmar and the Bangladesh borders.
The Chair of the delegation Mr. Pier Antonio Panzeri (S&D, IT) said:
"The European Parliament has had concerns about the human rights situation in Myanmar and after a five-day visit these concerns remain as the human rights situation is clearly deteriorating in various regions of the country and affecting many diverse cultural, ethnic and religious groups, human rights defenders and journalists..." Read more below
The next meeting of the Subcommittee on Human Rights will take place on Tuesday 27 February 2018, from 09.00 - 12.30, meeting room József Antall (4Q1)
Representatives of NGOs as well as other organisations are requested to accede to the EU Transparency Register and follow the procedures therein for access to the European Parliament.In light of recent developments in Sudan, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Heidi Hautala and the Chair of the Human Rights Subcommittee, Pier Antonio Panzeri stated:
"We strongly condemn the arbitrary arrest by Sudanese forces of Salih Mahmoud Osman, Sakharov Prize Laureate and Vice President of the Darfur Bar Association, as well as arrests of other human rights defenders in Sudan..."
Shocked by the recent attack against a Save the Children office, the Chair of the EP's Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), Mr Pier Antonio Panzeri, made the following statement:
"I express my strongest condemnation of this attack on the Save the Children office in Jalalabad. I am very saddened by this brutal attack which targets an organisation committed to improving the lives and well-being of children in Afghanistan and around the world."
Alarmed by the recent death sentence pronounced against Hamed bin Haydara, the Chair of the EP's Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), Mr Pier Antonio Panzeri, made the following statement:
"On 2 January 2018, a rebel-controlled criminal court in Sanaa sentenced the Baha'i prisoner Hamid bin Haydara to death for allegedly collaborating with Israel and forging official documents. His execution, the date of which is unknown, is to be carried out in public. The sentence is the result of a fundamentally flawed process. I therefore call on the responsible Houthi leaders to make sure that Mr. Haydara's death sentence is repealed and that he and the other Baha'i prisoners are released."