Sous-commission Droits de l'homme (DROI) - Parlement européen

World Press Freedom Day is marked every year on 3 May, but there is little reason to celebrate as journalists continue to be repressed and persecuted all over the world. The challenges facing the press are discussed by Parliament's human rights subcommittee on Thursday morning, with a special focus on the growing threat of disinformation. Check out our handy guide on how to spot fake news.
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Handy guide on how to spot fake news
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

"Defending the right to freedom of expression and the right to receive information is paramount in times like today when verifiable news and information are in decline and fake news is on the rise", Pier Antonio Panzeri (S&D, IT), the Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), declared in a press statement issued on 3 May.

Further information
Press release - full text
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

The next meeting of the Subcommittee on Human Rights will take place on Tuesday 30 May from 3 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. in meeting room A3G-3.

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.
Further information
Watch the meeting live
Draft agenda and meeting documents
Press Statements
Calendar of DROI Meetings 2017
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Durée de la vidéo : 194'
Vous pouvez télécharger manuellement cette vidéo au format WMV (1.7Gb)

Clause de non-responsabilité : L'interprétation des débats facilite la communication mais ne constitue en aucun cas un enregistrement authentifié des débats. Seuls le discours original ou la traduction écrite révisée du discours original peuvent être considérés authentiques.
Source : © Union européenne, 2017 - PE

Durée de la vidéo : 129'
Vous pouvez télécharger manuellement cette vidéo au format WMV (1.2Gb)

Clause de non-responsabilité : L'interprétation des débats facilite la communication mais ne constitue en aucun cas un enregistrement authentifié des débats. Seuls le discours original ou la traduction écrite révisée du discours original peuvent être considérés authentiques.
Source : © Union européenne, 2017 - PE

Length of video : 85'
You may manually download this video in WMV (731Mb) format

Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Source : © Union européenne, 2017 - PE

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

The Chair of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights, Antonio Panzeri (S&D, IT) condemns the execution of two members of the UN Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

"The summary execution of two United Nations experts is a clear sign of the security crisis in the DRC. The observers, of American and Swedish nationality respectively, were shot dead in March 2017 at the hands of criminals, who did not hesitate to broadcast the video on social networks,"declared the Chair of the Subcommittee on Human rights, Pier Antonio Panzeri (S&D, IT)..."
Press Statement
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

The Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) and the Committee on International Trade (INTA) will hold a joint hearing on 'Business and human rights in EU External Policies: due diligence, non-financial reporting and access to remedies', on 3 May from 15.00 - 18.30, Meeting room PHS 5B1

Human rights has become a topic of importance for the European Union in relation to trade and is ever more present when the EU is negotiating new agreements with third countries. Notwithstanding the positive achievements realized to date there are still several challenges ahead if we are to fully integrate the human rights perspective into the business dimension. The joint hearing is divided into three panels: the first panel on Corporate Social Responsibility and global value chains, the second will analyse the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and access to remedies, while the third will focus on the UN intergovernmental working group on a legally binding instrument on transnational corporations.

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Programme
Webstreaming
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

The EU has developed an impressive range of policy tools for pushing back against restrictions on civil society across the world. It has gradually improved the way it deploys these instruments and has helped protect many activists at risk. Notwithstanding this, the EU needs to sharpen its ‘shrinking space’ strategy. This study suggests a range of precise policy changes it should contemplate to this end.
It advocates a number of strategic guidelines that could help make the EU's responses more proactive; better able to tackle the broad structural elements of the shrinking space; fully balanced between political and development approaches; and geared towards building more inclusive alliances against new restrictions on civil society.
Further information
Study
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

The Chair of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights, Antonio Panzeri (S&D, IT) condemns the execution of two members of the UN Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
"The summary execution of two United Nations experts is a clear sign of the security crisis in the DRC. The observers, of American and Swedish nationality respectively, were shot dead in March 2017 at the hands of criminals, who did not hesitate to broadcast the video on social networks,"declared the Chair of the Subcommittee on Human rights, Pier Antonio Panzeri (S&D, IT)..."
Further information
Full statement
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

• Draft opinion on Impact of international trade and the EU's trade policies on global value chains, rapporteur for the opinion: Mr Panzeri

• Exchange of views on the occasion of the Press Freedom Day

• Exchange of views with Aristride Nononsi, the UN Independent Expert on Sudan

• Briefing by the EEAS ahead of the DROI ad hoc delegation to Uzbekistan

Further information
Draft agenda
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

The Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Committee on International Trade will hold a joint hearing on 'Business and human rights in EU External Policies: due diligence, non-financial reporting and access to remedies'
Human rights has become a topic of importance for the European Union in relation to trade and is ever more present when the EU is negotiating new agreements with third countries. Notwithstanding the positive achievements realized to date there are still several challenges ahead if we are to fully integrate the human rights perspective into the business dimension. The joint hearing is divided into three panels: the first panel on Corporate Social Responsibility and global value chains, the second will analyse the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and access to remedies, while the third will focus on the UN intergovernmental working group on a legally binding instrument on transnational corporations.
Programme
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

The European Union is committed to supporting democracy and human rights worldwide, in accordance with its founding principles of liberty, democracy and respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law. As the only directly elected EU institution, the European Parliament is particularly committed to promoting democracy. The two Fact Sheets in this booklet present the EU’s role and engagement in promoting democracy.
Source : © Union européenne, 2017 - PE

DROI delegation acknowledges significant progress in access to education, health care and drinking water.

"The purpose of our visit was to gather information, to learn about the achievements of the Bolivian government and to encourage the government to further improve the human rights situation in Bolivia. Discussions with our interlocutors focused notably on the rights of indigenous people, children and women (especially violence against women), prison conditions, freedom of association, the situation of civil society, reparations to victims of the military dictatorship, and the independence of the judicial system."
Full statement
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

AFET and DROI chairs condemn the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict and call for an immediate restarting of negotiations.

"The use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict must be considered as an extremely concerning act. In view of the very recent developments, we call for the need to urgently bring all the involved parts back to the negotiation table, in order to find a political solution for the Syrian conflict, which has already caused thousands causalities and refugees. The immediate recovery of the negotiations is vital if we want to avoid that the current situation turns into a spiral of violence, with uncontrollable effects and if we want to avoid that this conflict degenerates into a large-scale armed conflict."
Full statement
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

"Stand up in defence of human rights and honour your commitments to the human rights conventions", urges DROI Chair.

"States have to honour their commitments to the human rights conventions, which they have ratified", said Subcommittee on Human Rights Chair Antonio Panzeri concerned by the increasing number of cases of reprisals and intimidation against human rights defenders, during a visit to the 34th session of the UN Human Rights Council's on 20 and 21 March 2017."
Full statement
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

"Open debates on political rights and freedom of expression and religion are vital", says DROI Chair

This week from 21-23 February, the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) visited the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to engage in constructive dialogue, to assess the human rights situation, the country's achievements in the field of socio-economic development, to discuss the EU-Vietnam free trade agreement's potential impact in improving the livelihood of the population, including people with disabilities, and also to develop inter-parliamentary dialogue between the EP and the National Assembly of Vietnam with a view to sharing experiences.
Full statement
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

DROI delegation acknowledges significant progress in access to education, health care and drinking water. Five members of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), Cristian Dan Preda (EPP, RO), Joachim ZELLER (EPP, DE), Ana GOMES (S&D, PT), Francisco ASSIS (S&D, PT) and Ignazio CORRAO (EFDD, IT) visited Bolivia on 18-20 April.
As the EP delegation yesterday concluded its visit to Bolivia, the chair of the delegation, Cristian Dan Preda, has stated: "The purpose of our visit was to gather information, to learn about the achievements of the Bolivian government and to encourage the government to further improve the human rights situation in Bolivia. Discussions with our interlocutors focused notably on the rights of indigenous people, children and women (especially violence against women), prison conditions, freedom of association, the situation of civil society, reparations to victims of the military dictatorship, and the independence of the judicial system.
Further information
Full Statement
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP