16.6.2023
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 214/83 Wednesday 18 January 2023
3.
Recalls that the 2020-2024 EU action plan on human rights and democracy should be used as a roadmap of the EU’s priorities concerning human rights and should therefore be at the centre of all EU external policies; stresses the importance of the Member States taking ownership of the EU action plan and publicly reporting on their actions under it; encourages national and regional parliaments, national human rights institutions and civil society organisations to engage with authorities at Member-State level on their contributions to the carrying out of the EU's external human rights policy; calls for Parliament to be involved in the Council’s future review and update of any of the EU’s Human Rights Guidelines and for more transparency in their implementation to be ensured;
4.
Expresses deep concerns at the grave threats to human rights and democracy worldwide, noting that the number of democracies has continued to decline, while the number of authoritarian regimes has grown and nearly 75 % of the world’s population have experienced a deterioration in the situation of human rights in their country in the past year; underlines with concern the serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in an increasing number of places around the world, as well as widespread impunity for these violations;
5.
Deplores the fact that despite the need to concentrate on responses to the threats posed by climate change and the recovery from the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic through global solidarity, some authoritarian leaders have, in addition to mismanaging the pandemic and global resources, intensified their repression of political opposition, dissent, human rights defenders, civil society organisations, including community-led and belief- and faith-based organisations, and independent media, as well as fuelling and expanding existing internal and international conflicts and sparking new ones with devastating effects on human rights; deplores the several instances in which authoritarian leaders misused the effects of the pandemic to justify tightening their repressive policies;
6.
Emphasises the importance of the EU and its Member States consistently acting together, notably in multilateral forums, to address global challenges to human rights and democracy, and of maintaining consistency within its internal and external policies; is of the opinion that maintaining the unanimity rule for certain EU foreign policy decisions, including sanctions on human rights offenders, stands in the way of necessary decisive action owing to changing geopolitical circumstances, and should therefore be reconsidered;
7.
Urges the EU and its Member States to intensify their efforts all over the world to support democracy and human rights; calls for the EU and its Member States, in this regard, both individually and in cooperation with like-minded international partners, to thwart unacceptable attempts to weaken democratic institutions and universal human rights and diminish the space for and role of civil society; reaffirms the value of multilateralism as an instrument to achieve this goal; stresses the importance of placing democracy and human rights concerns at the heart of the EU’s diplomatic relations with all counterparts, in particular with countries considered to be strategic partners; stresses, in addition, the importance of placing human rights matters at the heart of EU parliamentary activity, including by upgrading the Subcommittee on Human Rights to a stand-alone committee; notes the launch on 26 August 2022 of a pilot project to establish a European diplomatic academy;
8.
Reiterates that the ambitious commitment and rhetoric of the EU's foreign human rights policy requires it to lead by example in order to avoid undermining its credibility when opposing the global democratic decline; calls for the EU institutions and bodies, including the European External Action Service (EEAS), to ensure that the EU’s and Member States’ human rights obligations are consistently implemented in the EU’s common foreign and security policy; encourages them, in this regard, to make use of all diplomatic tools, both privately and publicly, and both bilaterally and in multilateral forums, to raise human rights issues with partner countries; reiterates its call for the EU to take particular care to assess and prevent any violations linked to its own policies, projects and funding, including by the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in third countries and to create a complaints mechanism for individuals or groups whose rights may have been violated by EU activities in these countries;
War of aggression against Ukraine
9.
Condemns in the strongest possible terms Russia’s illegal, unjustified and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine, as well as Belarus’s involvement enabling Russia to launch deadly attacks against Ukraine from its territory; expresses, in this regard, its deep grief at the human suffering and condemns the serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed by the Russian armed forces and their proxies in Ukraine;