Human rights and democracy in the world and the European Union’s policy on the matter – annual report 2023

Wording as published by the EP, in English.

1. Amendment 8Rejected

   Recital I a (new)

   Tabled by Jaak Madison, Harald Vilimsky, Jean-Lin Lacapelle +3 · ID

   Added: Ia. whereas, according to Open Doors, more than 360 million Christians face persecution, harassment or discrimination;

2. Amendment 10Rejected

   Paragraph 19 a (new)

   Tabled by Jaak Madison, Harald Vilimsky, Jean-Lin Lacapelle +3 · ID

   Added: 19a. Notes with concern that ‘wokeism’ and the resultant cancel culture widen societal divisions, discourage open and frank discourse, lead to a reductionist view of history, promote censorship and historical revisionism and inevitably curtail freedom of expression;

3. Amendment 11Rejected

   Paragraph 24 a (new)

   Tabled by Jaak Madison, Harald Vilimsky, Jean-Lin Lacapelle +3 · ID

   Added: 24a. Expresses grave concern that Christians remain the most persecuted religious group in the world; condemns, in the strongest terms, any and all attacks against Christian communities; deeply regrets the desecration and vandalism of sacred and religious sites; calls for the EU and its Member States to condemn all such actions and to defend and protect our Christian heritage;

4. Amendment 12Rejected

   Paragraph 28 a (new)

   Tabled by Jaak Madison, Harald Vilimsky, Jean-Lin Lacapelle +3 · ID

   Added: 28a. Notes with concern and condemns the rise of antisemitism in the world;

5. Amendment 13Rejected

   Paragraph 30 a (new)

   Tabled by Jaak Madison, Harald Vilimsky, Jean-Lin Lacapelle +3 · ID

   Added: 30a. Expresses concern regarding policies of reverse racial discrimination in South Africa, where there are currently more than 120 racial laws in place even though apartheid ended 30 years ago; further condemns the brutal and torturous murders of South African farmers, which are a direct result of political party members singing songs such as ‘Kill the Boer, kill the farmer’; urges the South African Government to prioritise the prevention, investigation and prosecution of these attacks as a matter of extreme urgency; condemns the fact that these attacks are widely ignored or rationalised by the international community;

6. Amendment 14Rejected

   Paragraph 40 a (new)

   Tabled by Jaak Madison, Harald Vilimsky, Jean-Lin Lacapelle +3 · ID

   Added: 40a. Condemns, in the strongest terms, all instances of female genital mutilation, honour killings, child marriages and forced marriages, all of which are specifically prevalent in Islamic communities;

7. Amendment 15Rejected

   Paragraph 44

   Tabled by Jaak Madison, Harald Vilimsky, Jean-Lin Lacapelle +2 · ID

   44. Removed: Denounces Added: Insists that the EU’s migration policy is to blame for the erosion of the human rights and the safety of Removed: migrants, refugees and forcibly displaced persons; reaffirms their inalienable human rights and recalls the obligation of states to protect them in accordance with pertinent international law; calls for the EU and its Member States to effectively uphold these rights in the EU’s migration and asylum policies and their cooperation with partner countries in this regard; deplores the increasing trend of xenophobia, racism and discrimination towards migrants; stresses that refugees and migrants, especially those who are undocumented, face different forms of violence, including during displacements, such as sexual and gender-based violence, as well as many barriers, such as in access to education, healthcare, decent housing and other basic services; is extremely concerned by the unprecedented number of forcibly displaced people as a result of human rights violations, which has doubled in the past 10 years; welcomes the activation of the Temporary Protection Directive17 and calls for its use when necessary; calls for the strengthening of efforts in the protection of the right of migrants and to guarantee their access to all basic services, including while in transit, and to respect the principle of non-refoulement; calls for an immediate end to the illegal practice of pushbacks; calls for the root causes of migration and forced displacement to be addressed; 17 Council Directive 2001/55/EC of 20 July 2001 on minimum standards for giving temporary protection in the event of a mass influx of displaced persons and on measures promoting a balance of efforts between Member States in receiving such persons and bearing the consequences thereof (OJ L 212, 7.8.2001, p. 12). Added: citizens of the Member States; emphasises that migrants would not risk their lives to travel to Europe if pull factors were not being created by EU policies; notes that some of these weaknesses are not adequately addressed in the Migration Pact; insists on a policy of the regional placement of refugees and on making international funding conditional upon the effective implementation of return and readmission agreements with third countries;

8. Amendment 16Rejected

   Paragraph 44 a (new)

   Tabled by Jaak Madison, Harald Vilimsky, Jean-Lin Lacapelle +3 · ID

   Added: 44a. Notes with concern that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play a major role in facilitating migrant smuggling by acting as a shuttle service and by giving migrants advice on how to circumvent national laws by instructing them to dispose of their travel and identification documentation; emphasises that NGOs that facilitate illegal migration should not receive any EU funding and reiterates that illegal search and rescue operations by NGOs, as well as all other activities in support of illegal entry into the Member States, should be subject to prosecution in accordance with national law;

9. Amendment 22Adopted

   Paragraph 12 b (new)

   Tabled by Miguel Urbán Crespo, Marc Botenga, Manu Pineda +4 · The Left

   Added: 12 b. Highlights that UNRWA plays an irreplaceable role in providing critical aid to ensure the day to day survival of 2.2 million civilians in Gaza, who are facing an unspeakable threat to their lives and most basic rights; rejects the suspension of funding to UNRWA by 18 states, and recalls that if this decision is not reversed, UNRWA will run out of funds in the coming months; calls, therefore, for the EU and its Member States to grant UNRWA support with the proper funding to continue and to improve its life-saving humanitarian work;

10. Amendment 30Rejected

    Paragraph 11 a (new)

    Tabled by Pedro Marques, Nacho Sánchez Amor · S&D

    Added: 11a. Is deeply concerned by the serious violations of international humanitarian law and the continuous deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza; calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, an end to violence, for de-escalation and for full compliance with international law and international humanitarian law; reiterates its strong condemnation of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks of 7 October 2023 and calls again for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages; condemns the disproportionate Israeli military response which has caused an unprecedented civilian death toll – particularly among children and women – and a humanitarian catastrophe; calls on the Israeli Government not to take military action in Rafah that would worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation and prevent the urgently needed provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance; calls on Israel to cease all indiscriminate attacks against civilians resulting in collective punishment of the population living in Gaza, and to abide by the binding ruling of the International Court of Justice ordering provisional measures; recalls that upholding respect for international law in Gaza and the region is of key importance for safeguarding a rules-based international order; stresses, in this regard, that the EU’s ability to maintain a coherent and principled position will determine its credibility in the international community; recalls that respect for human rights and democratic principles constitutes an essential component of the EU-Israel Association Agreement; takes note of the request to the Commission by two Member States to undertake a review of whether Israel is complying with its obligations under the agreement; calls for the EU to make full use of the leverage provided by the agreement to demand an immediate end to violations and abuses in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza;

11. Amendment 31Rejected

    Citation 8 a (new)

    Tabled by Anna Fotyga · ECR

    Added: – having regard to the 10th Anniversary of the release of the UN Commission of Inquiry Report on Human Rights Abuses in North Korea of 7 February 2014,

12. Amendment 32Rejected

    Paragraph 40 a (new)

    Tabled by Karol Karski, Charlie Weimers, Hermann Tertsch · ECR

    Added: 40a. Calls on the Commission to cease all funding of Islamism and organisations with ties to Islamism as well as campaigns glorifying or legitimising the hijab;

13. Amendment 36Rejected

    Recital G

    Tabled by Hermann Tertsch, Jorge Buxadé Villalba, Karol Karski · ECR

    … as the values and principles on which the European Union is founded; Added: whereas Russia poses an extremely serious threat to the stability of democracies in the EU, spreading misinformation and fake news in electoral campaigns and financing riots and acts of terrorism to support independence movements, such as the attempted coup d’état in 2017 in the Spanish region of Catalonia; 13 University of Gothenburg, ‘The world is becoming increasingly authoritarian – but …

14. Amendment 37Rejected

    Recital G

    Tabled by Hermann Tertsch, Karol Karski · ECR

    … polarisation, institutional dysfunction and threats to civil liberties; whereas this rise in Removed: authoritarianism, illiberalism and reactionary trends worldwide, including in the European Union, Added: authoritarianism has been most dramatic in the Pacific region, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, South America, and the Caribbean; whereas it threatens the global rules-based order, the protection and promotion of human rights …

15. Amendment 38Rejected

    Paragraph 31

    Tabled by Hermann Tertsch, Karol Karski · ECR

    … disappearances, arbitrary detentions and extrajudicial killings under any circumstances, including law enforcement; Added: strongly denounces, in this regard, the latest enforced disappearances in Venezuela, linked to this year’s presidential election, such as that of Spanish citizen Rocío San Miguel and her relatives, as well as the recent deaths in prison of dissidents Alexei Navalny in Russia and Ihar Lednik in Belarus; calls on all countries to adopt and implement effective measures with a …

16. Amendment 39Rejected

    Paragraph 34

    Tabled by Hermann Tertsch, Karol Karski · ECR

    … entrenching their power, as they lack real political contestation, legitimacy and pluralism; Added: calls to mind the case of Venezuela, where the Maduro regime recently barred opposition candidate María Corina Machado from running in the upcoming presidential election; calls for the efforts to guarantee the public participation of minorities, as …

17. Amendment 40Rejected

    Paragraph 76

    Tabled by Hermann Tertsch, Karol Karski · ECR

    … of action, by suspending the relevant agreements if other options prove ineffective; Added: calls to mind, in this regard, the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement with the Republic of Cuba1a, and calls once again for its suspension under Article 85(3)(b) of the Agreement; ____________________ 1a Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Cuba, of the other part, OJ L 337, 13.12.2016, p. 3.

18. Amendment 42Rejected

    Recital I

    Tabled by Karol Karski · ECR

    … giving rise to oppression, conflict and war, and breaches of international law; Added: whereas Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world; whereas 360 million Christians live in countries where persecution is significant; whereas Nigeria accounts for 90 % of Christian martyrdoms worldwide;

19. Amendment 43Adopted

    Paragraph 24

    Tabled by Karol Karski · ECR

    … internet and social media, and, more broadly, to restrict civil society space; Added: condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the persecution of Christians all around the world;

20. Amendment 44Rejected

    Paragraph 44

    Tabled by Karol Karski · ECR

    … and to guarantee their access to all basic services, including while in Removed: transit, and to respect the principle of non-refoulement; calls for an immediate end to the illegal practice of pushbacks; Added: transit; calls for the root causes of migration and forced displacement to be …

21. Amendment 46Rejected

    Paragraph 76

    Tabled by Karol Karski · ECR

    … of action, by suspending the relevant agreements if other options prove ineffective; Added: is of the opinion that suspension should also take place where there is a serious conflict with shared values, such as in cases of support for aggression;

22. Amendment 47Rejected

    Paragraph 85

    Tabled by Karol Karski · ECR

    … with national authorities on the protection of human rights and individual cases; Removed: reiterates its call for the Commission to take a proactive role in the establishment of an EU-wide multi-entry visa scheme for HRDs at risk; hereby urges the Member States to undertake procedural enhancements within their diplomatic missions, ensuring expeditious, comprehensible, accessible and attainable visa application processes; Removed: further calls on the Member States to collaboratively establish and integrate a dedicated category within the EU Visa Code, thereby streamlining visa procedures and promoting uniformity in the EU’s visa application process; calls on the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the …