Human rights in the world

The European Parliament adopts each year a report on human rights and democracy in the world. In the past, this report dealt with country situations and specific issues and was considered  to be a "shopping list" of concerns. Through the action of the Green Chairwoman and the Green Members of the subcommittee, the structure and content of this report will be reviewed to transform it into a genuine tool  for evaluating the implementation of EU instruments in the field of human rights and democracy. In this sense, the European Parliament can gain more credibility  with  the Council and the Commission by focusing on the evaluation of EU human rights policy and by making concrete recommendations on this matter. The new structure of the report therefore reinforces the role of the Parliament and Parliament's recommendations can also be better taken into consideration by the Council and the Commission.

The 2005 report on human rights in the world was, in our views, a successful experience. The only concern was to associate the Parliament into the drafting of the Council report and thus, to prevent our institution to draft its own report and to play its role of parliamentary body, was finally overcome and a compromise amendment was adopted in plenary.

We decided also in the meantime to strengthen the link between both reports and to allow the Council to present its report in plenary so as to stress its importance.

At each Strasbourg plenary session, cases of breaches of human rights, democracy and the rule of law are debated and related resolutions are adopted. Those resolutions aim to put pressure on governments that breach human rights but also to give recommendations to the European Commission and Council in their policy making.

Below you can see a selection of Green/EFA motion for resolutions on topics related to human rights :

- Russia
- Tunisia
- Freedom of expression on the internet
- Guantanamo
- Publication of cartoons satirising the Muslim Prophet Muhammad