Changes from plenary report to adopted text

39. Continues to regard the EUSR for Human Rights as an essential voice of the EU’s external human rights policy, contributing to its visibility and coherence in close cooperation and coordination with all EU bodies;

EU Special Envoy for the promotion and protection of freedom of religion or belief outside the EU

40. Takes note of the fact that the post of the EU Special Envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion or belief outside the EU has remained vacant for more than a year; highlights the need to ensure close cooperation with the EUSR for Human Rights and the Council Working Party on Human Rights;

EU trade and international agreements with non-EU countries

41. Emphasises the crucial role of international agreements, including association and trade agreements, and of instruments such as the generalised scheme of preferences (GSP) and GSP+ for placing human rights and democratic standards at the core of the EU’s relations with non-EU countries, for encouraging and monitoring compliance with such standards and for implementing human rights conditionality in the EU’s external policy; reiterates its call to integrate human rights assessments and include robust clauses on human rights in relevant agreements between the EU and non-EU countries; underlines the importance of addressing gender inequality and promoting women’s rights through these agreements, including by supporting women’s participation in the economy and protecting them from discrimination and exploitation;

42. Insists that the rights of indigenous peoples, as stated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, must be consistently respected in EU agreements, development projects, and corporate activities affecting their lands or resources; emphasises the importance of upholding indigenous rights for sustainable development, climate action, and biodiversity conservation;

43. Recalls the responsibility of businesses in ensuring that their operations and supply chains are not implicated in human rights abuses; underlines the need to close legal and regulatory loopholes that could be exploited by businesses at the expense of human rights and the environment; reiterates its strong support for the UN open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights for a legally binding instrument on business and human rights;

EU human rights dialogues

44. Notes that 35 human rights dialogues and consultations were organised in 2024; considers that these dialogues continue to be an important instrument in advancing human rights and democracy, but regrets that they are often seen as a free-standing instrument rather than a key element of sustained engagement on human rights in relations with non-EU countries and regions; calls for the enhanced and meaningful involvement of civil society in the dialogues; stresses that genuine CSOs must not be impeded from participating in human rights dialogues and that any dialogue must include them without any limitations; considers that there is space for enhancing Parliament’s role more systematically in the dialogue process; reiterates the need to raise individual cases, in particular those highlighted by Parliament in its resolutions, and ensure adequate follow-up; takes note of the fact that several human rights dialogues continue not to be held in EU headquarters;

EU sanctions instruments and tools, including the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime (GHRSR – Magnitsky Act)

45. Reiterates its support for increasing the use of the GHRSR, along with other ad hoc sanctions frameworks, as a key political EU policy tool promoting the rule of law, democracy and human rights, which complements other judicial instruments; calls for the EU and its Member States to expand the scope of the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime (EU Magnitsky Act), to include acts of corruption – as already requested several times by Parliament – and systematic listings for perpetrators of transnational repression, including those targeting diaspora communities; recalls, however, the limitations and slowness of the current decision-making system for these instruments’ activation and the loopholes in enforcement mechanisms that allow circumvention; reiterates its call for the introduction of qualified majority voting for decisions on the GHRSR; calls for an equal, principled and complete enforcement of sanctions and for circumventions to be tackled;

EU support for HRDs

46. Welcomes the fact that, in 2024, the Human Rights Defenders Mechanism, funded under the Human Rights and Democracy thematic programme of the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe, supported 10 050 HRDs considered high-risk, 51 % of whom were women, and provided support to more than 700 journalists at risk in 60 countries over the same period;

47. Regrets that some mechanisms to protect HRDs, such as ProtectDefenders, are insufficiently resourced to meet the need and calls for the EU and the Member States to strengthen budgetary support, ensuring flexible, accessible and long-term funding to enable HRDs to continue their vital work amid increasing repression;

48. Underscores the critical role of EU delegations and Member State representations in observing trials, conducting visits in detention and supporting the families and lawyers of persecuted HRDs;

49. Welcomes the 2024 update of the EU Visa Code Handbook, aimed at clarifying for the Member States the possibilities of flexibly handling HRD cases to speed up short-stay visa applications for those at risk;

50. Highlights the valuable role of the Sakharov Prize Community, including through the Sakharov Fellowship programme, in contributing to a better understanding of the phenomenon of repression against HRDs, its various implications and possible ways to tackle it, including at transnational level; calls for further strengthening of the Sakharov Prize community as a platform for direct experience in monitoring violations, raising awareness and mobilising international networks;

EU actions at multilateral level for upholding the global rules-based order

51. Welcomes EU efforts in sponsoring or supporting resolutions at the UN Human Rights Council and UN General Assembly; is concerned that recent decisions by non-EU countries to scale back funding for the Human Rights Council and the UN system as a whole already have tangible implications for their ability to carry out their mission;

52. Welcomes the fact that the Council of Europe has been at the forefront of addressing concerns and advancing the setting of global norms and standards in several areas related to human rights, such as gender-based violence, academic freedom, the protection of lawyers and journalists, AI and human rights;

53. Is deeply concerned that the ICC, its officials, and cooperating partners face threats or attacks; reaffirms its firm support for the ICJ and the ICC as essential, independent and impartial judicial bodies; welcomes the EU’s continued financial support of the ICC at a particularly challenging time for international justice; deplores the persistent failure to activate the EU blocking statute to shield the ICC from the extraterritorial effects of sanctions;

Team Europe approach and democracy support

54. Recognises the value of aligning approaches with human rights protection and promotion across all EU institutions, bodies and Member States’ representations engaged in external action, first and foremost across Member States’ embassies and EU delegations in non-EU countries, but also of making use of Parliament’s full potential; stresses that flexible and coordinated approaches should remain inclusive to enable the EU institutional system of checks and balances to operate fully; emphasises that Parliament plays a strong role in upholding EU values and human rights, for instance through parliamentary diplomacy, interparliamentary dialogues and resolutions, promoting mediation and encouraging a culture of dialogue and compromise, especially among young political leaders, and empowering women parliamentarians, HRDs and representatives from civil society and independent media; reiterates its call on the Commission to continue and expand its activities in these areas by increasing support for EU bodies; takes note of the ongoing work of the Team Europe Democracy initiative in several countries; considers that enhanced collaboration between Parliament’s Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group, the relevant Commission Directorates-General and the EEAS would greatly contribute to democracy support activities in non-EU countries;

Recommendations

55. Calls for the EU to use the tools at its disposal to counter the growing challenges to multilateralism so as to ensure that the work of international institutions continues to be respected; calls for the EU and its Member States to step up their support for the work of the UN and all its agencies, both politically and financially, including in its reform, to ensure that it is fit for purpose, to push back against the influence of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes and to ensure the continuation of multilateralism as the basis of global governance; calls for the EU to expand its own support and funding efforts as a counterbalance for politically motivated pressure and as a safeguard for independent procedures; reiterates the need for the EU and its Member States to speak with one voice in multilateral forums; calls for EU delegations to play a stronger role in multilateral forums, for which they should be appropriately resourced;

56. Calls for the EUSR’s work to be supported with increased resources and better coordination with EU delegations around the world, highlighting that limited transparency and visibility – such as the absence of public reporting on country visits, the work programme and priorities, or the lack of a dedicated website – may hinder public scrutiny and accountability; deplores, despite continuous calls, Parliament’s exclusion from the process of selecting the EUSR and calls for this practice to be revised;

57. Calls on the Commission to ensure the timely appointment of the EU Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief; underlines the importance of providing the Special Envoy with adequate continuity, resources and visibility to effectively promote freedom of religion or belief worldwide; stresses that regular reporting to the European Parliament would further strengthen transparency and cooperation in this field;

58. Calls for the abolition of apostasy laws and blasphemy laws; calls for the EU and its Member States to intensify efforts to protect freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, raise the issue in UN forums, and consolidate reports from EU delegations on the matter; calls on the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the EEAS and the Commission to systematically raise the case of the persecution of religious minorities in political and human rights dialogues and to ensure full respect for freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief; invites the Council to make use of the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime against individuals and entities responsible for serious freedom of religion or belief violations; requests that the EEAS identify priority countries for EU action on freedom of religion or belief and to report annually to Parliament on progress;

59. Urges all EU Member States, as States Parties to the UN Charter, the Rome Statute and the European Convention on Human Rights, to fully abide by rulings of the competent international courts including the ECtHR; calls for the EU to urge non-EU countries, including its major partners and candidate and potential candidate countries, to become States Parties to the Rome Statute; calls for the EU and its Member States to continue and intensify their support for the ICC with the necessary means, including resources and political backing; urges all the Member States to respect and uphold the actions and decisions of all organs of the ICC, including by enforcing ICC arrest warrants; demands the protection of the ICC, its officials and those cooperating with it from threats and attacks and, in that sense, reiterates its call on the Commission to urgently activate the blocking statute to protect the ICC from the consequences of sanctions and enable its continued operation in full independence; calls on the Member States to apply universal jurisdiction in the fight against impunity;

60. Calls on the Commission and the EEAS to adopt a new Gender Action Plan post-2027 that will address the need for extra support for gender equality and women’s rights and that will specifically tackle gender-based violence and the need for a gender-sensitive approach to humanitarian aid;

61. Calls for the EU and its Member States to propose the inclusion of ‘gender apartheid’ as a crime against humanity in order to hold those responsible for this crime accountable; calls for strong support for the gender apartheid definition proposed by the UN working group on discrimination against women and girls;

62. Calls for the protection of civilians at all times during armed conflicts and for the creation of humanitarian corridors, when necessary, in order to allow civilians to escape conflicts, and strongly condemns any attacks on civilians; calls for more effective protection of journalists and human rights defenders during armed conflicts, as they are particularly targeted for their work in documenting human rights abuses; emphasises that mothers and children are at an increased risk of starvation and malnutrition;

63. Calls for the participation of women and men with disabilities to be taken into account in the design of safe and accessible infrastructure during reconstruction processes following armed conflicts or natural disasters;

64. Calls on the Commission and the EEAS to establish clear indicators and timelines in the post-2027 EU action plan on human rights and democracy to measure success, strengthen coherence between the EU’s internal and external actions and specify better connections between priorities as enunciated in the action plan and narrower benchmarks;

65. Calls on the Commission and the EEAS to involve civil society more inclusively and to take better account of the results of consultations when developing and implementing its external human rights policy, including consultations with local actors who are closest to the implementation level;

66. Calls for a clearly earmarked budget for human rights, democracy and the rule of law in the future MFF, with clear gender equality targets that have adequate funding support for the development of democratic structures and the growth of free media, including in neighbouring countries; stresses that the EU budget also needs to be protected in its external dimension as it provides crucial leverage to achieve higher compliance with human rights and democratic standards by partner countries; calls, therefore, for enforceable human rights and robust democracy clauses to be introduced in the new Global Europe instrument for funding partner non-EU countries; calls for an operational conditionality framework that applies, inter alia, to macro-financial assistance, trade preferences and visa facilitation, with clear benchmarks and enforceable legal mechanisms to ensure compliance, including suspension clauses in cases of persistent violations;

67. Insists that non-EU countries receiving EU support in the fields of human rights, the rule of law, or civil society development must establish independent national human rights institutions, such as ombudsperson offices, in line with the Paris Principles; stresses that the presence of such institutions should be a prerequisite for funding eligibility;

68. Calls on its EU institutional partners to explore new avenues to improve decision-making, including qualified majority voting, and, when more flexible approaches are employed, such as the Team Europe approach, to ensure that human rights are sufficiently guaranteed;

69. Calls for human rights dialogues to be reinforced through clear benchmarks and deliverables so that progress can be clearly delineated and assessed during each respective round of dialogue; calls for the systematic and meaningful involvement of civil society actors in human rights dialogues and follow-up;

70. Calls for increased visibility for these dialogues and their outcomes, including the publication of joint press statements, and for these dialogues to be results-oriented or based on clear benchmarks enabling effective monitoring, including ex ante and ex post consultation with genuine civil society organisations;

71. Calls for enhanced collaboration with Parliament in the deliberation process leading up to the dialogues; stresses, in addition, the need for the EU to continue applying pressure for the dialogues to be held at EU headquarters; considers that civil society and national human rights institutions should have a distinct role in monitoring the progress of the implementation of these targets;

72. Calls for the EU to pursue the establishment of European and international instruments to guarantee access to justice and effective remedies for people affected by corporate human rights abuses; calls for the effective and thorough implementation of current EU rules on responsible corporate behaviour regarding human, labour and environmental rights such as the EU legislation on due diligence; stresses the need to establish EU policies and mechanisms capable of effectively reconciling the requirements of the sustainable transition with respect for the livelihoods of local communities; calls for the EU to promote and protect local communities and indigenous people’s rights in its foreign policy;

73. Calls for the EU to firmly commit to the implementation of the Paris Agreement and to enhance international climate cooperation; stresses the importance of addressing the implications of climate change for peace and security at the highest level;

74. Calls for the EU to assess the effectiveness of the toolbox for addressing disinformation campaigns against the EU, particularly in countries that receive significant EU humanitarian and development assistance and in candidate countries for EU membership; calls urgently for the EU to back trustworthy media and information outlets that promote the accountability of authorities and support democratic transitions, while stressing the need to preserve the principles of pluralism, transparency and independence;

75. Welcomes the directive designed to shield journalists and HRDs from abusive legal actions and SLAPPs; encourages lawmakers in non-EU countries to develop legislation with the same goal, as part of broader efforts to promote and protect media freedom and pluralism; requests that attacks on media freedom, as well as the persistent and systematic erosion of the right to information, be taken into account in the EU’s monitoring of the compliance of international agreements;

76. Underlines the importance of tackling gender disinformation and online harassment targeting women active in politics, journalism and civil society, which aim to silence dissent, undermine democratic participation and spread anti-EU narratives; stresses that the instrument should include binding obligations to prevent, mitigate and remedy gender-specific human-rights impacts; calls for proportionate and effective countermeasures and improved monitoring tools to prevent, expose and respond to such phenomena, while safeguarding fundamental rights and freedom of expression; calls for dedicated support and protection measures to ensure the safety of women journalists, activists and politicians online and offline;

77. Calls for the promotion of academic freedom as a key component of open and democratic societies;

78. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to recognise transnational repression as a specific human rights threat, establish systems to track, document and address it, provide training and resources to law enforcement, and ensure accountability for perpetrators, including officials and agents of non-EU countries and local enablers; stresses that EU responses should integrate these trends into human rights guidelines and international cooperation;

79. Calls for the EU and its Member States to continue and enhance their support for human rights defenders and to adopt adequate regulatory safeguards in the EU to combat transnational repression;

85. Reiterates its call on the Council to adopt an ambitious mandate for the EU to engage in the ongoing negotiations on a legally binding UN instrument to hold companies accountable for their human rights violations as soon as possible; calls for the EU to ensure the alignment of EU and national legislation with international human rights standards and to strengthen collaboration with other regions and global organisations;

86. Calls for the systematic implementation of ex ante and ex post human rights assessments and for the inclusion of robust enforceable clauses on human rights in agreements between the EU and non-EU countries, supported by a clear set of benchmarks and procedures to be followed in the event of violations; calls on the Commission and the EEAS to ensure that the human rights clauses in current international agreements are actively monitored and effectively enforced, including with suspension, and to improve their communication with Parliament concerning considerations and decisions regarding this enforcement; reiterates that in the event of persistent breaches of human rights clauses by its partner countries, including those in the GSP+ scheme, the EU should react swiftly and decisively, including by suspending the agreements in question if other options prove ineffective;

87. Calls for the creation of a complaint-handling portal, within the framework of EU trade and financial instruments, possibly through the adaptation of the Commission’s Single Entry Point to allow for complaints to be submitted regarding failures to comply with human rights clauses; stresses that this portal should be accessible, citizen-friendly and transparent, and open to citizens of non-EU countries;

88. Encourages careful monitoring and assessment of the capacity of EU delegations so as to ensure that they all have a designated point of contact for cases of human rights violations with sufficient resources to enable an effective and timely response; recommends also that EU delegation staff are regularly trained on the current EU guidelines relating to human rights specific issues; demands that Member States’ embassies engage in the defence and promotion of human rights in non-EU countries in a more vocal way, actively supporting the role of EU delegations;

89. Highlights that in many regions of the world, micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are often the driving force of local economies, with an increasing number of women running them; underlines that MSMEs account for 90 % of businesses, 60 % to 70 % of employment and 50 % of gross domestic product worldwide; highlights the importance of MSMEs in their contribution to the 2030 Agenda and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, namely those on the eradication of poverty and decent working conditions for all;

90. Reiterates its call to prioritise the fight against corruption as a factor enabling attacks on human rights and democracy; urges the Council to finally adopt an anti-corruption sanctions regime, which has been a long-standing priority of Parliament;