On Monday 9 September, the chair of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), Maria Arena, unveiled the priorities of this subcommittee to EUROPE, which have been agreed between the group coordinators.
Thus, human rights issues related to the environment, such as land grabbing or climate migrants, are one of the priorities.
Another topic on which there was a consensus was business and human rights. “There is often a tendency to criminalize governments and ignore companies”, Ms Arena acknowledged, stressing that human rights must be included in the international trade policy. Ms Arena cited working conditions in the textile sector in Bangladesh, the mining sector or intensive agriculture.
Minority rights and freedom of religion are other major themes for the subcommittee, as is the shrinking space of civil society, including press freedom, Human Rights Defenders and political violence.
Finally, new technologies - in order to ensure that they do not erode rights - including disinformation and the issue of migration and humanitarian crises, in relation to human rights, have been identified as priorities by the coordinators. “The EU is the one that cleans inside and puts its dirt outside”, denounced Ms Arena, who believes that the issue of human rights must be taken into account throughout the migrant's entire journey.
In addition, children's rights, women's rights, autochthonous population’s rights and impunity will be addressed as cross-cutting items.
Ms Arena said she was in contact with the chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), David McAllister, in order to find the right agreement and complementarity between her subcommittee and that of Mr McAllister, of which the MEPs of the DROI subcommittee are also members.
The subcommittee will also be called upon to cooperate with the EU Special Representative for Human Rights, Eamon Gilmore. On 9 September, before the MEPs of the subcommittee, he hoped to work more closely with them. “I want to work closely with the subcommittee to share information and experiences. Your work, your resolutions, missions, delegations have a strong impact”, he told MEPs.
“We are on the same side (...) This is the right time to align our work with human rights. We do not agree on everything, on priorities, the best solutions, efficiency, but in a world where human rights have never been called into question, we are on the same side”, Mr Eamon argued. In response, Ms Arena promised him the support of the subcommittee in its work. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)