Debate: Annual report  on the human rights and democracy in the world and the European Union's policy on the matter
Date: TUESDAY, 14 JANUARY 2020
Speaker: Josep Borrell Fontelles
Language: EN

I have to start by saying that human rights and democracy are and must remain at the heart of our work. It’s part of our DNA. At the very first Foreign Affairs Council meeting I chaired in December, we discussed with all EU foreign ministers our collective efforts to protect and promote human rights and democracy, taking into account the worrying trends, including shrinking space for civil society and increasing attacks on human rights defenders. The ministers agreed on the political appropriateness of establishing an EU global human rights sanction regime, and work on this is being taken forward in the Council and we hope to move forward as quickly as possible. This global human rights sanction regime is one of the targets, one of the purposes, objectives that we, all together, have to try to achieve as soon as possible. On my second day in office, I engaged with grassroots environmental human rights defenders from around the world at the Human Rights Forum, focusing on how to build a fair environment for the future. Many of the issues that you address in your Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy, which was adopted in May last year, were already addressed in this report. And we delivered and streamlined a report using concrete country—specific examples. We are fully aware of the strong interlinkages between the two reports and for the next EU annual report, covering 2019, we are aiming for a timely adoption this spring. Your report calls for a more effective EU human rights foreign policy. It’s a welcome contribution to the ongoing work on the new Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy. This will be a roadmap setting the EU level of ambition and priorities for the next five years and it will reflect the transition to a digital world and the changing geopolitical dynamics. Human rights and democracy are and should continue to be at the centre of our relations with third countries. The European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) is the largest financial instrument in the world dedicated specifically to human rights and democracy and payments for EUR 135 million were made under this flagship in 2018. Let me give some examples: the 2018 global call for proposal led to the selection of five projects on LGBTI rights and there was EUR 70 million to spend on that. They cover such difficult countries on this subject like Russia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia and Peru. This project supported capacity—building of specialised NGOs and offered legal aid to victims of LGBTI—related human rights violations and to human rights defenders. Beyond development cooperation, your report correctly points out that trade and economic policies should be linked to political dialogue and that human rights violations should be fully taken into consideration in any action that the European Union is undertaking. You are very well aware of our human rights guidelines, the regular dialogues and a strong public diplomacy. We have a special representative for human rights that has reached out to governments and civil society globally and his leadership has already raised considerably the profile of the European Union human rights policy. In particular, the European Union has contributed to moving forward on rights of the child and, together with a group of Latin American and Caribbean countries, we have been tabling three resolutions on the right of the child. Two were presented during the March session of the Human Rights Council. One concerned the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the second focused on empowering children with disabilities so that they can enjoy their human rights, including the right to inclusive education. Your report also correctly draws attention to the rising backlash against women’s rights worldwide. The EU remains strongly committed to the full enjoyment of human rights by all. Our broad commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment is demonstrated, in particular, by our Spotlight Initiative on ending violence against women and girls, signed in September 2017 in New York. This initiative is backed by a substantive EUR 500 million investment over the period 2018—2024. Two pillars were implemented: the Latin American pillar against the gender—motivated killing of women and the sub—Saharan pillar to prevent and eliminate sexual and gender—based violence and harmful practices. These need to remain at the forefront of our efforts, particularly in view of the 25th anniversary of the World Conference on Women and the Beijing Declaration. Also, your report welcomes the Council conclusions on democracy of last October and highlights the significance of transparent, inclusive and credible elections. This requires me to thank the Member States – and also the Members of this Parliament – who have joined our election observation missions. This election observation mission structure is a good example of how our institutions are working efficiently together. I don’t want to read the whole list of those missions, but I just want to point out some of them: Salvador, Kosovo, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sri Lanka and Tunisia. I am sorry that we were not in the last elections in Bolivia. We are going to mend that and will continue to do such important work in order to defend the basis of the human rights, which is an efficient democracy.  Let me say that this exchange of views was very useful. In the end, I will say I am sure that when I heard you, Ms Rapporteur, I found in your works the same aim that motivates the service I have responsibility for in order to work together on this issue. Thank you very much for your work. I am sure that now I can have more information about what you ask the External Action Service to do to defend human rights all over the world because you, European Parliamentarians, and us, people working on our missions all over the world, are trying to fight for the same purpose.