Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

AddedM. whereas persecution of religious minorities constitutes a violation of the freedom of religion or belief, one of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and in international law;

AddedN. whereas Directive (EU) 2024/1712 amended Directive 2011/36/EU to include the exploitation of surrogacy, forced marriage and illegal adoption among the practices constituting trafficking in human beings;

AddedO. whereas the Istanbul Convention, which the EU recently joined, despite being ratified only by some Member States, affirms that armed conflicts result in repeated human rights violations affecting civilian populations, especially women, who are subject to rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war and suffer an intensification of gender-based violence during and after conflicts, with survivors left without access to justice or adequate medical and psychological support; whereas the aforementioned Convention defines violence against women as a human rights violation;

AddedP. whereas gender equality is a core EU value, and the human rights of women and girls, including their sexual and reproductive rights, continue to be violated across the world; whereas women experience a unique and disproportionate impact from conflicts, climate change and migration, including increased risks of gender-based violence, economic marginalisation and barriers to accessing resources; whereas women-focused HRDs and CSOs continue to experience shrinking space for their critical work, as well as threats of violence, harassment and intimidation;

AddedQ. whereas civil society organisations representing persons with disabilities and their families play an essential role in advancing human rights and building democratic and inclusive societies; whereas persons with disabilities, in particular women and girls, face intersectional discrimination in contexts of conflict, migration and trafficking, and whereas the EU’s external action must protect their full inclusion and equal access, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;

AddedR. whereas the climate crisis poses a threat to humanity as a whole and is, at its core, a human rights crisis, undermining the rights to life, food, water and sanitation, health, culture and beyond in every region of the world, as recognised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the UN Human Rights Council;

AddedS. whereas democracy support is at the centre of EU external action, with electoral observation as one of the key instruments of the EU toolbox;

AddedT. whereas in 2024, more than half the world’s population went to the polls, and many of those elections were marked by manipulation, disinformation and attempts at interference from inside or outside the country; whereas similar patterns are being observed in 2025;

AddedU. whereas the 2025 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reveals that more than half of the world’s population lives in countries where press freedom is in a ‘very grave’ situation, with the global state of press freedom now classified as a ‘difficult situation’ for the first time in the index’s history; whereas as of Thursday 10 September 2025, according to RSF’s 2025 Barometer, since 1 January 2025, 51 journalists and media workers have been killed, 527 have been detained, 25 have been taken hostage, and 142 have gone missing;

AddedV. whereas the past year has been marked by a further proliferation of foreign influence and of ‘foreign agents’ laws, including in countries with EU candidate status, targeting CSOs and media outlets and attempting to prevent them from receiving financial support from abroad, including from the EU and its Member States, fostering a climate of fear and self-censorship;

AddedW. whereas 272 million children and young people are being deprived of their fundamental right to education and remain out of school, representing a considerable increase of 21 million compared to the last reported estimate of 251 million according to the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report 2025; whereas girls and women continue to be affected not only by poverty but also by cultural norms, gender bias, child marriage and violence through official, discriminatory policies that prevent them from accessing education and the labour market, with one in three adolescent girls from the poorest households having never been to school, according to UNICEF;

AddedX. whereas the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime (EUGHRSR) – EU Magnitsky Act, adopted in December 2020, enables the EU to impose restrictive measures on individuals and entities responsible for serious human rights violations worldwide; whereas certain EU Member States have adopted their own national Magnitsky-style legislation;

AddedY. whereas transnational repression is a well-documented phenomenon, taking place in a global context of deteriorating human rights, shrinking civic space and the growing prevalence of increasingly repressive and assertive authoritarian regimes;

AddedZ. whereas the lack of judicial independence undermines the separation of powers, weakens the rule of law and contributes to democratic backsliding;

AddedAA. whereas territories of certain countries – including in the EU – remain under military occupation by foreign powers in violation of international law and relevant UN Security Council resolutions; whereas persistent violations of human rights, including property rights, freedom of movement and worship, as well as restrictions on access to and preservation of cultural and religious heritage in the occupied areas, continue; whereas the issue of missing persons and the right of families to truth and justice remain unresolved;

AddedGrowing threats and global challenges to human rights and democracy

Added1. Reasserts its positions expressed in its 2024 annual report adopted on 2 April 2025 regarding the universality and indivisibility of human rights and the protection of the inherent dignity of all human beings based on the EU values and principles that guide Union action on the international stage under Article 21 TEU; reiterates, in particular, its conclusions regarding the rights of women, children, migrants and refugees, religious and ethnic minorities, and all those who continue to be affected by human rights abuses in particularly insidious ways due to their race, ethnicity, religion, caste, gender, sexuality, disability or socio-economic status, as well as the concern for violations of freedom of thought, conscience or religion, of expression, media freedom, the right to information and public participation; reiterates its unwavering opposition to the death penalty;

Added2. Insists that the effective respect and protection of human rights and freedoms must be the cornerstone of the EU’s external policy; calls for the EU to continue developing a comprehensive toolbox to strengthen human rights and democracy globally; calls for the EU and its Member States to continue to lead by example, in line with its values, and to promote and strictly uphold human rights and international justice;

Democratic backsliding

Change 5

Removed2. Notes with grave concern the deterioration of the global human rights landscape and the clearly accelerating trend of democratic backsliding across the world;

Added3. Condemns the deterioration of the global human rights landscape and the clearly accelerating trends in human rights violations and abuses and democratic backsliding around the world, such as violations of women’s rights, executions, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture and ill treatment, gender-based violence, and clampdowns on civil society, political opponents, marginalised and vulnerable groups including children and elderly people, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, and ethnic and religious minorities;

Removed3. Stresses that cyberattacks, disinformation and misinformation, often used as tools of foreign interference, including during elections, contribute to this trend of democratic decline; stresses the critical significance of trustworthy, independent and diverse sources of information and of quality journalism for solid democratic societies and a thriving civic space; is therefore deeply concerned by the growing and multifaceted challenges faced by independent media, including increasing attacks against journalists and the decrease in available funding;

Added4. Stresses that the EU must be fully prepared to counter the rise of authoritarianism, totalitarianism and populism, as well as the increasing violations of the principles of universality of human rights, democracy and international humanitarian law; notes that the right to participate in free and fair elections is under attack by authoritarian, totalitarian and illiberal regimes; deplores that obstacles to the full enjoyment of such rights are increasingly present in a number of mature democracies; highlights that the aforementioned regimes conduct fake elections with the aim of legitimating their power, since they lack real conditions for contestation, legitimacy and pluralism;

Removed4. Reiterates the essential role played by civil society for a flourishing democracy, and deplores actions taken by governments across the world to shrink the civic space, such as their introduction of tailored legislation aimed at restricting financing for non-governmental organisations and curbing freedom of assembly;

Added5. Highlights the importance of providing quality education for girls and ensuring equal opportunities as essential for women’s empowerment and the full exercise of their rights; stresses that investment in girls’ education globally yields positive outcomes for societies for generations to come; reiterates the necessity of age-appropriate, evidence-based comprehensive sexuality and relationships education and, both within the EU and beyond, of eliminating gender stereotypes and harmful societal norms that drive inequalities;

Removed5. Highlights the crucial work of HRDs in advancing human rights; deplores, however, the growing attacks against HRDs and the increased sophistication of the methods employed for persecuting them within and outside their countries, including through various forms of transnational repression;

Added6. Reiterates that rape remains one of the most widespread violations of human rights and recalls that rape, defined on the basis of a lack of consent, needs to be criminalised under EU law under the existing legal basis; condemns in the strongest terms the use of rape and other forms of sexual violence as a weapon of war used to terrorise civilian populations, suppress resistance and destroy communities; recalls that such acts can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, or acts contributing to genocide under international law;

Removed6. Considers that while the use of new and emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), has the potential to considerably improve human well-being, their unrestricted or undiscerning application also poses serious threats to democracy and human rights; notes with particular concern the use of facial recognition technology, mass digital surveillance and information suppression as powerful coercive instruments;

Added7. Calls for the EU and global actors to denounce practices such as female genital mutilation, forced and underage marriage, and ‘honour’ violence and killings; calls for decisive action across the EU and globally to prevent the trafficking of women and girls and support victims of sexual and gender-based violence;

Added8. Stresses that cyberattacks, disinformation and misinformation, often used as tools of foreign interference, including during electoral periods, contribute to this trend of democratic decline; stresses the critical significance of trustworthy, independent and diverse sources of information and of quality journalism not only for transparency and accountability but also for the resilience of democratic institutions and the informed participation of citizens in public life; is therefore deeply concerned by the growing and multifaceted challenges faced by independent media, including increasing attacks on journalists and the decrease in available funding; reiterates that freedom of speech is a human right, vital for the development of a pluralistic and democratic society; condemns the increase in the censorship, silencing and harassing of journalists, HRDs and CSOs in their work through the application of so-called foreign agents laws, as well as other legislative and non-legislative measures adopted by authoritarian and illiberal regimes; notes that this behaviour includes measures encompassing strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), restrictive government policies, transnational repression, defamation campaigns, discrimination, intimidation, arbitrary detention and violence, having a long-lasting effect on their career and safety; highlights, in this regard, the role played by fact checkers in the media landscape, ensuring that the public can trust the information they receive;

Added9. Underlines the essential role civil society plays in a well-functioning democracy; is extremely concerned by the continuing restriction of civil society space, the growing threats to the work of HRDs and members of CSOs, as well as their families, communities and lawyers, and finds particularly concerning the increasingly sophisticated means used to persecute them; strongly condemns their arbitrary detentions and killings; deplores actions taken by governments across the world to shrink the civic space, such as through the introduction of tailored legislation aimed at restricting financing for non-governmental organisations, including funding from foreign sources, the adoption of so-called foreign agents laws and the misuse of counter-terrorism or anti-corruption laws in order to curb freedom of assembly and to supress HRDs; denounces the crackdown on peaceful protesters and on youth- and student-led protests and organisations in the world with cases of torture and ill treatment resulting in deaths and other serious violations;

Added10. Condemns the obstruction of independent civil society participation in multilateral forums, for example through the instrumentalisation of government-affiliated NGOs and through intimidation and reprisals;

Added11. Highlights the crucial work of HRDs in advancing human rights; deplores, however, the growing attacks on HRDs; condemns the impunity with which perpetrators commit violations against HRDs both in the public and private spheres; insists on the particular threats faced by women HRDs and the lack of accountability for such acts; notes the increased sophistication of the methods employed for persecuting them within and outside their countries, including through various forms of transnational repression and threats, including through financial means, surveillance, intimidation, digital harassment, and politically motivated detention of dissidents and activists abroad;

Added12. Highlights the fact that autocratic and illiberal regimes are increasingly taking unlawful advantage of international financial and cybersecurity legislation, such as anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism laws or Financial Action Task Force standards, to target dissenting voices and to obtain their behavioural data, also in EU territory;

Added13. Points out that LGBTIQ+ persons are particularly vulnerable amid war and forced displacements, facing persecution and violence; calls on the Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) to ensure that the EU’s external aid includes protection and safeguarding measures in these situations;

Added14. Stresses that during conflicts and forced displacements the burden of caregiving falls disproportionately on women and girls, limiting their access to education, employment and political participation; calls for the EU’s humanitarian aid to include measures to support caregivers;

Added15. Considers that while the use of new and emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), has the potential to considerably improve human well-being, their unrestricted or undiscerning application also poses serious threats to democracy and human rights, also bearing in mind that this transformation can be shaped by biased data and driven by algorithms that frequently reinforce discrimination; condemns the increasing misuse and abuse by authoritarian regimes of facial recognition technology, mass digital surveillance, deepfakes and disinformation campaigns, censorship of online content, and information suppression, cyberattacks, data breaches, state-sponsored online influence operations and a growing number of internet shutdowns as powerful coercive instruments; highlights that internet shutdowns are often used by authoritarian regimes to silence political dissidence and curb political freedom; notes in the absence of robust minimum human rights safeguards that relevant technologies risk being exported to autocratic systems, thereby also facilitating human rights violations in other countries;

Added16. Condemns the wave of opposition in various parts of the world to gender equality and women’s and LGBTIQ+ rights; stresses that these trends form a threat to the fundamental principles enshrined in the Treaty on European Union;

Added17. Condemns in the strongest terms the increasing attacks on sexual and reproductive health and rights around the world; reaffirms that the denial of quality comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services, including safe and legal abortion, constitutes a form of gender-based violence;

Added18. Reiterates its concern over violations of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, and the global rise in intolerance towards local faith actors and religious communities; deplores the political instrumentalisation of religious identities and the exclusion of religious minorities, including from political participation, as well as attacks on cultural and historical sites; stresses that freedom to choose one’s religion or belief is a human right that cannot be punished; condemns, therefore, the existence and implementation of so-called apostasy laws and blasphemy laws that lead to harsh penalties, degrading treatment and, in some cases, even to death sentences;

Added19. Condemns the practice of commercial surrogacy, which can involve the reproductive exploitation and use of women’s bodies for financial or other gain, in particular in the case of especially vulnerable women in non-EU countries; calls on the Commission to take measures to support addressing the practice of commercial surrogacy;

Multilateralism

Change 6

Changed7.20. IsExpresses deep concern over the persistent global crisis of accountability and highlights the ongoing struggle to end impunity for violations of fundamental international human rights and humanitarian law in conflicts worldwide; reaffirms the essential neutrality and vital role of humanitarian aid in all conflict and crisis situations; highlights the grave repercussions of undermining and attacking multilateral organisations, including the UN, which risks fostering a culture of impunity and weakening both trust in and the effectiveness of the UN system; calls for the EU to defend the international legal framework and to implement robust measures to ensure adherence to these laws; is deeply concerned by the fact that the work of multilateral institutions on human rights institutions and the multilateral rules-based order is underfaces unprecedented threat;threats and attacks; strongly regretsdeplores the decision made by some countries to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council and their announcements that they would not participate in the Universal Periodic Review; condemns the constant attempts to undermine and discredit the UN, its Secretary-General, its Special Rapporteurs, and its agencies, including those delivering humanitarian aid, as well as the attacks on peacekeeping missions;

Change 7

Removed8. Notes that this departure from a multilateral approach to the global order does not only pose a threat to the effective resolution of current crises, but also makes the outbreak of new crises more likely; underlines that the multilateral system, with the UN at its core, remains the most effective way of addressing global challenges in a just, sustainable and principled manner;

Added21. Reiterates the need for the EU and its Member States to speak with one voice at the UN and in other multilateral forums in order to effectively tackle global challenges to human rights and democracy in these forums and to support the strongest possible language in line with international human rights standards; stresses that the current multilateral order needs to fully incorporate in its architecture global actors focusing on democracy and human rights such as the EU; calls therefore for the EU and its Member States to work towards ensuring a permanent seat for the EU in multilateral forums, particularly in the UN Security Council in addition to existing Member States’ seats;

Removed9. Highlights that growing disrespect for international law and the politicisation of debates concerning international justice institutions, such as the ICJ and the ICC, poses an existential threat to the rules-based global order; expresses its deep concern about the increasing disregard for and polarisation around international humanitarian and human rights law; deplores the unprecedented threats faced by the ICC, in particular owing to the imposition of sanctions on its judges and staff; recalls that international law and the competent independent legal authorities are essential in upholding international justice, ensuring accountability and fighting against impunity, which are necessary preconditions of any reconciliation process and sustained peace;

Added22. Expresses deep concern regarding the escalating attacks on the rules-based international order by authoritarian, totalitarian and illiberal regimes, in particular through their unprovoked and unjustified aggression against peaceful neighbouring countries, as well as through actions aimed at undermining the effective functioning of United Nations bodies, including the misuse of the veto power in the UN Security Council;

Added23. Calls on the Member States and like-minded partners to develop a robust strategy, to intensify their efforts to counteract this alarming escalation and to send a united and strong message of support to those organisations when they are attacked or threatened; considers that the UN, its constituent bodies and other multilateral organisations require reform to effectively respond to these growing challenges and threats;

Added24. Notes that this departure from a multilateral approach to the global order not only poses a threat to the effective resolution of current crises, but also makes the outbreak of new crises more likely; underlines that the multilateral system, with the UN and other multilateral forums at its core, remains the most effective way of advancing efforts for peace and security, respect for human rights and addressing global challenges in a just, sustainable and principled manner; commends the role of the UN with regard to the promotion of human rights, conflict resolution and global governance, particularly in conflict zones;

Added25. Highlights that growing disrespect for international law and the politicisation of debates concerning international justice institutions, such as the ICJ and the ICC, pose an existential threat to the rules-based global order; expresses its deep concern about the increasing disregard for and polarisation around international humanitarian and human rights law; deplores the unprecedented threats faced by the ICC, in particular owing to the imposition of sanctions on its judges and staff; recalls that international law and the competent independent legal authorities are essential in upholding international justice, ensuring accountability and combating impunity, which are necessary preconditions of any reconciliation process and sustained peace;

Added26. Underlines that all EU Member States, as parties to the Rome Statute, are legally obliged to enforce ICC arrest warrants; whereas any decision to ignore these obligations or withdraw from the ICC violates the EU acquis and undermines the rules-based international order;

Added27. Reiterates the EU’s strong support for the European Court of Human Rights; urges all signatory States to the European Convention on Human Rights to fully abide by the rulings of the Court;

Added28. Notes with concern that some countries have repeatedly attempted to embed terminologies and concepts in the Human Rights Council that ultimately lead to the relativisation of accountability; calls for the EU and its Member States to ensure that such phrasings are systematically opposed;

Added29. Expresses serious concern about the human rights situation in illegally occupied territories, including in EU territory, and in cases of protracted conflicts and the multiple frozen and invisible conflicts, and calls for effective measures to prevent grave human rights abuses on the ground;

Assessing the EU’s toolbox for the promotion and protection of human rights and democracy around the world

EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2027

Change 8

Changed10.30. Recognises that the time frame of the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy is now aligned with the EU budget cycle, which should help ensure funding for action plan priorities; recalls, however, that the mid-term review did not rely onlacked clear benchmarks for assessment benchmarks and thereforeconsequently didfailed notto provide clear guidance for tackling shortcomings; believes that a full review of the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy should not be further delayed and that itwork isshould timebegin toimmediately beginon setting the parameters for an improved plan as soon as possible;plan;

Change 9

Changed11.31. BelievesInsists that Parliament shouldmust be consultedactively involved in the preparation of the new action plan;

Change 10

Added32. Underlines the role of the EU’s public, parliamentary and cultural diplomacy, as well as of its international cultural relations, in the promotion of human rights and democracy, and calls for the Strategic Communication and Foresight division of the EEAS to increase its efforts in this regard, for which it should be given adequate resources;

Funding of external action for human rights and democracy – proposed Global Europe instrument under the 2028-2034 MFF