What Salima spoke about.

Madam President, Commissioner, six months of war, six months of human disasters, 34,000 dead including 14,500 children, more than 76,000 injured, 129 hostages, famine, lack of care, demolition of homes, schools and hospitals, 1.7 million Palestinians in exodus, 257 aid workers killed, colonisation and violence on the rise in the West Bank, and 105 journalists killed – the deadliest and most danger

Madam President, 28 million people around the world are victims of forced labour. This shocking reality must alert us all. In this context, this crucial and historic regulation has strengths, finally tracing and banning products from forced labour or linked to state systems in companies’ supply chains. We call for the establishment of a database to facilitate the identification of forced labour by

Madam President, I would like to add, as part of the wording for the HR/VP, the word ‘journalists’ after ‘humanitarian workers’. In other words, we would have the following title: Statement by the HR/VP on the repeated shelling of aid workers, journalists and civilians by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Mr President, I stand before you today not only as a human rights defender, but also as a voice for oppressed women in Afghanistan. Since the return of the Taliban, women no longer exist in Afghanistan. Public executions, floggings, prohibition to attend school, prohibition to travel without a tutor: we are witnessing the brutal suppression of all the rights they have acquired over the past two de

Mr President, the situation in Gaza is inhumane. The urgency is absolute: the massive destruction of Gaza by bombing, the forced displacement of Gazans and the blocking of humanitarian aid have led to a catastrophic famine in Gaza. We can only condemn in the strongest terms the obstruction of humanitarian aid orchestrated by Israel and the attacks on convoys, one of which killed more than 120 peop

Madam President, Commissioner, silence, we are killing! In appalling media silence, the Great Lakes region in eastern Congo has already suffered one of the greatest tragedies in our modern world with 10 million dead and more than 7 million displaced. Today, the March 23 movement uses the worst weapons of war: famine, rape, destruction of health systems and hate speech. The M23 escalated its attack

Madam President, Commissioner, today I invite you to embrace the very essence of our humanity, to defend the fundamental rights that define us as a society. The 2023 Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World is much more than a compilation of facts and figures. It is a call to action, a wake-up call to the growing rise of authoritarianism and extremism threatening our world. This re

Mr President, Commissioner, after four months, we come here to say about the same thing: 1,200 dead, including 36 children in Israel, 138 Israeli hostages, nearly 30,000 dead Palestinians, including 5,350 children and 3,250 women, thousands of missing Gazans, more than a million displaced. The situation today is dramatic and inhumane: 300,000 Palestinians are malnourished and there is a threat of

Mr President, I have repeatedly said this throughout my term of office: The future of Europe must be written by today's youth. To enable our young people to take their full part in the European project, teachers have a decisive role to play. Education is the cornerstone that supports the future of our young Europeans. More than ever, we must invest in education for our young people, build with the

Madam President, unfortunately, prejudice and discrimination persist in our societies. There is an urgent need to mobilise collectively against antisemitism, but also against Islamophobia. These are manifestations of ignorance and fear that threaten our core values of tolerance and respect. The European Union must act concretely and decisively, at the risk of our societies dividing and confronting

Mr President, 1,139 Israelis have been killed, including 36 children. 24,000 Gazans killed, including 8,000 children, and more than 60,000 wounded, almost all without care. Thousands of missing Gazans, 100 journalists killed, 1 million displaced, more than half of Gaza's hospitals shut down, 70% of homes damaged or destroyed by bombing, 136 Israeli hostages still missing, an imminent famine accord

Madam President, Dharamsala is a beautiful mountain town that I visited at the foot of the Himalayas. It is full of Buddhist monasteries and temples and museums on Tibetan history. There is an art institute where wood, textiles and metals are worked by hand, and a large school village where teachers draw Tibetan letters on slate. What is heard in Dharamsala is the sound of the Buddhist chimes, the

Mr President, first of all, I would like to address all my thoughts to the memory of Dominique Bernard, his relatives and all the students and staff of the Gambetta-Carnot high school in Arras, but also to all the teachers, all the members of the educational staff, the two victims of the Brussels attack, their relatives, and the people of Belgium and Sweden – not to mention Samuel Paty. As a polit

Mr President, last June we were already here to show the results of our PEGA inquiry and urgently call for reforms to better control spyware. Why this emergency? Well, after Pegasus, we have Predator, which at least has the merit of being much clearer in its name. There are still far too many loopholes, and the cyber-surveillance industry knows how to exploit them by circumventing existing regulat

Madam President, it is, first of all, with great emotion that I would like to convey all our thoughts to Dominique Bernard, to his relatives and to all the students and staff of the Lycée Gambetta d’Arras, but also of all the schools. The teacher I have been and the Member I am condemn this Islamist terrorist act with all possible force. It is necessary to call – I agree – evil by name, also in th

Madam President, ‘se acabó’ is over. It is time to end impunity. It still took Luis Rubiales three weeks to agree to resign. Three weeks of mobilisation of the Spanish women’s football team and convictions from all sides. But three weeks were not enough to make him admit that his action was unacceptable and that it constituted sexual assault. And that is the problem: that some, too many, have not

Mr President, there is one key message I want to convey today: security, yes, but not at any cost. Spying software is necessary, particularly in the fight against terrorism and serious crime, but it must also be combated by certain states, which hide behind the excuse of national security to unlawfully spy on political opponents, journalists and human rights activists. This inquiry in the PEGA Com

Mr President, the great Fayrouz sang: ‘Zaalouni shou sayer bi balad il Eid’ – ‘They asked me what is happening in the holiday country’. I went there, Fayrouz, a month ago, with colleagues from my group, Renew, and this is what happens: a country without a president or parliamentary or political activity for eight months, a country where the political elite has devoted more effort to dismissing Jud

Mr President, finally we have this debate in our Chamber. I can only rejoice – I think it can be seen – at the fact that, since the beginning of my mandate, I have been constantly fighting against trafficking in cultural goods and looted goods. Thank you for your presence, Commissioner, but with all due respect I would have liked to see also Mr Schinas, Ms Johansson and Ms Gabriel. Trafficking in

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, twenty-four days. Twenty-four days after Matiullah Wesa was arbitrarily arrested by the Taliban. What heinous crime could he have committed? He crossed rural Afghanistan with a megaphone on his mobile library, advocating for the right to education of Afghan women and girls. Afghanistan is the only country in the world that prohibits girls and women

Mr President, the authoritarian drift in Tunisia has taken a new turn in recent weeks. President Kaïs Saïed continues to destroy democracy and the fundamental rights of the Tunisian people. Journalists, judges, lawyers, trade unions, human rights defenders or political opponents, soon NGOs, all face violent repression. Noureddine Boutar, Chaïma Issa, Issam Chebbi or Ghazi Chaouchi and so many othe

Madam President, thank you, human rights defenders who work all over the world to defend the fundamental rights of all and who are absolutely indispensable for the common future. On the front line, you human rights defenders face repression, assault and intimidation, harassment, blackmail and digital surveillance. The international context of recent months testifies to the increasingly violent rep

Madam President, Omar Radi, Hajar and Soulaimane Raissouni, Taoufik Bouachrine, these are some of the names of those whose rights to fair justice are violated in Morocco for their work as journalists. Allegations of espionage, money laundering, rape or adultery for women only: Human Rights Watch has shown that it is a veritable arsenal of repressive techniques that is systematically used by the Mo

Madam President, thank you, dear Isabelle, for this annual report, which confirms the trend we are seeing: the state of democracy and human rights is deteriorating a little more every day in the world. Declared democratic states are transforming into authoritarian regimes, making the rule of law an optional element. We need to put human rights at the heart of our relations with third countries, bu

Madam President, this year the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National, Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary. This is an opportunity to recall the commitment that has always been mine: to make the voice of all minorities heard, in order to protect and strengthen their most fundamental rights. Let's not veil our face: