21 Amendments of Fabio Massimo CASTALDO related to 2022/2049(INI)
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas the rise in authoritarianism, illiberalism and populism within the European Union and around the world threatens the global rules- based order and the values and principles on which the Union is founded;
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
E a. whereas climate change and environmental degradation are two urgent and interlinked challenges underpinning sustainable development as well as the enjoyment of human rights globally;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas violations of the rights to freedom of thought and expression, conscience and religion, including the right to believe or not to believe, give rise to situations of oppression, conflict and war around the world;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Reaffirms the universality and indivisibility of human rights and the inherent dignity of every human being; stresses, in this regard, its strong commitment to addressing first and foremost the challenges to human rights within the EU and worldwide and reiterates the duty of the EU and its Member States to ensure the respect of human rights within their territories and to act as a global leader in the promotion and protection of human rights and democracy in line with the founding values of the Union;
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Expresses deep concerns at the grave threats to human rights and democracy worldwide, noting that the number of democracies has continued to decline, while the number of authoritarian regimes has grown and nearly 75 % of the world’s population have experienced a deterioration in the situation of human in their country in the past year; underlines with concern the serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in an increasing number of places around the world, as well as widespread impunity for such violations;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Condemns in the strongest possible terms Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine; expresses, in this regard, its deep grief at the human suffering and serious human rights violations caused by the Russian armed forces at the EU’s borders; welcomes the joint efforts of the EU and its Member States in response to the war; welcomes, moreover, the solidarity shown by a great number of countries towards Ukraine, as highlighted by their stance during the sessions and votes of the UN General Assembly on the crisis in Ukraine; calls for the EU and its Member States to give the Ukrainian people and Russian civil society the support they need to defend democracy, human rights and international law; welcomes the unprecedented ambition of the sanctions imposed in the context of the war and calls for the EU and its Member States to continue to use all of the instruments at their disposal to support the Ukrainian people in their fight to free Ukraine from its occupiers;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 2
Subheading 2
Enhancing EU policies, instruments and diplomacy to protect and advance human rights and democracy in the world
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls for the EU to reflect on how to promote a human rights-based approach in all EU instruments and strategies in order to strengthen the EU’s human rights foreign policy; underlines that the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI – Global Europe), including its thematic programme on human rights and democracy, is one of the main tools at the EU’s disposal to improve the human rights situation around the world and help foster resilient, inclusive and democratic societies; stresses that the engagement of local civil society actors, in particular independent civil society organisations, is vital to protect human rights and democracy in their countries and reiterates its call to fully engage them in all of the EU’s relevant external activities, ensuring genuine consultation and participation of such organisations within the framework of official and informal dialogues, as well as exploratory talks; highlights the importance that NDICI – Global Europe attaches to the promotion of human rights and democracy with strategic international and local partners; underlines Parliament’s role in the instrument’s programming process and calls on the Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) to share all the relevant information in a timely manner in order to enable Parliament to play its role accordingly, in particular during high-level geopolitical dialogues with the Commission;
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Fully supports the work of the EU Special Representative (EUSR) for Human Rights in defending and advancing human rights in the world through engagement with third countries and cooperation with like-minded partners, and his important role in enhancing the effectiveness of the EU’s human rights policies through efforts to increase their coherence; reiterates that the appointment of the EUSR should be subject to a prior hearing in Parliament; underlines the need for close cooperation between the EUSR for Human Rights and other EUSRs on countries and regions in order to further improve this consistency, and calls for greater visibility for the role of the EUSR for Human Rights; encourages the EUSR to pursue diplomatic efforts to enhance the EU support for international humanitarian law and international justice; suggests to keep under review whether a dedicated position for an EU Special Representative on International Humanitarian Law and International Justice may be necessary; believes that making the most of its expanded mandate will require added human and financial resources, as well as political backing from the VP/HR and EU Member States at the highest level; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that adequate resources are provided to the new special representative and his team;
Amendment 197 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Highlights that 2022 marks the 10th anniversary of Parliament’s decision to exert political leadership in committing to a major advancement in its democracy support activities, which it has implemented through a Comprehensive Democracy Support Approach since 2014; welcomes, in particular, its support for capacity-building for partner parliaments, mediation and fostering a culture of dialogue and compromise, including among young political leaders, as well as for empowering women parliamentarians, human rights defenders and representatives from civil society organisations and the free media; calls on the Commission to continue to pursue and step up its activities in these areas and to bolster funding and assistance for EU bodies and agencies, as well as other grant-based organisations; underlines that in the current context of heightened global tensions and repression in an increasing number of countries, direct support for civil society and people who express critical and dissenting opinions is of the utmost importance and calls upon the European Commission and European External Action Service to integrate democracy support as a cross-cutting priority in all thematic and geographic NDICI programmes; stresses the importance of EU election observation missions and Parliament’s contribution to developing and enhancing their methodology; calls on the Commission, in this regard, to consider updating the election observation methodology to reflect the developments of the last two decades;
Amendment 226 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Notes with concern the increasing disregard for international humanitarian law and international human rights law, particularly in the ongoing conflicts around the world; underlines the utmost importance for humanitarian aid agencies to be able to provide full, timely and unhindered assistance to all vulnerable populations and calls on all parties to armed conflicts to protect civilian populations and humanitarian and medical workers; calls for the systematic creation of humanitarian corridors in regions at war and in combat situations, whenever necessary, in order to allow civilians at risk to escape the conflict, and strongly condemns any attacks on them; calls on the EU to update and integrate the Council Decision of 21 March 2011 on the International Criminal Court, with a strong EU position on the crime of aggression as called for by Parliament's resolution of 17 July 2014 on the crime of aggression;
Amendment 241 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Stresses the link between human rights violations and widespread impunity and the lack of accountability in regions and countries affected by conflicts; strongly welcomes the continuous contribution of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to the fight against impunity; calls for the EU and its Member States to provide the ICC with sufficient support to enable it to carry out its work; reiterates its condemnation of continuous efforts to undermine the legitimacy and work of the ICC by authoritarian and illiberal regimes and calls for the EU and its Member States to continue their efforts to counter them; welcomes the fact that the EU has provided support for the very first time to the ICC’s investigation capacities to help it scale up its investigations into war crimes committed by Russian armed forces in Ukrainein the context of the Russia's war of agression against Ukraine; calls on the European Union to promote a reform of the Rome Statute through amendments to the Rome Statute aimed at aligning the ICC's jurisdiction on the crime of aggression with that already in place on genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes;
Amendment 250 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Reiterates its call on the Commission and the EEAS to develop a comprehensive EU action plan on fighting impunity, which should include a chapter on Ukraine, and to explore ways and present new tools to contribute to the fight against international crimes and end impunity, to help the victims of violations of international human rights law and of international humanitarian law to access international justice and obtain remedy and reparation, including through building the capacity of Member States and non-EU countries to apply the principle of universal jurisdiction in their domestic legal systems; calls for the EU and its international partners to make full use of all relevant instruments to fight impunity, including support for universal jurisdiction at national level, special tribunals at a national and international level including for the crime of aggression, as well as establishing flexible cooperation and funding mechanisms to swiftly collect and analyse evidence of crimes; calls on the Commission to ensure that these instruments are applied in a coordinated and complementary manner with other relevant EU and Member State instruments; reiterates its commitment to providing all possible assistance to ensure accountability for atrocities committed by Russian armed forces inin and against Ukraine and provide effective remedies for the damages suffered by Ukrainian civilians;
Amendment 273 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Reiterates that personal liberty and freedom of assembly are cornerstones of democracy; is deeply concerned by the growing use of mass surveillance technologies by both authoritarian regimes and democracies to curtail these freedoms, which increased further under the guise of COVID-19 prevention measures; calls for a strict and effective ban on sales of mass surveillance technologies to authoritarian regimes; calls for a greater response to the mass infiltration of disinformation and conspiracy theories within the digital sphere, perpetuated largely but not exclusively by authoritarian regimes;
Amendment 286 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Calls for the EU and its international partners to strengthen their efforts to ensure full enjoyment of human rights by women and their equal treatment with men; underlines that women continue to be the main victims in violent crises and that sexual and gender-based violence has continued in many places around the world, notably being used in armed conflicts as a weapon of war; calls for more concerted efforts to eliminate the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and fight impunity of the perpetrators of such violence; calls for the EU to ensure the integration of a gender perspective throughout its efforts in conflict prevention and resolution, as well as in peacekeeping, humanitarian aid and post- conflict reconstruction operations, transitional justice and the promotion of human rights and democratic reforms; stresses the need to pursue efforts to fully eradicate the practice of female genital mutilation; stresses that women human rights defenders, activists, journalists and lawyers have been particularly targeted, with online harassment and intimidation increasing rapidly; highlights the increase in domestic violence and setbacks to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in both developing and developed countries and calls for the EU and its Member States to fully support the right of women to bodily integrity, dignity and autonomous decision-making and to firmly condemn any attempt to step back on these rights;
Amendment 352 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31
Paragraph 31
31. Calls for the EU to step up its efforts to ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, non-binary, intersex and queer persons (LGBTIQ); stresses that LGBTIQ persons around the world continue to face human rights violaStrongly condemns the human rights violations, including discrimination, stigmatisation, arbitrary detention, torture, persecution and killings that lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, non-binary, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) persons around the world continue to face; believes that practices and acts of violence against individuals on the basis of their real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics should not go unpunished and must be eradicated; calls for the EU to step up its efforts to ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by LGBTIQ persons and play a leading role in defending their human rights in its external actions, including discrimination, persecution, violence and killingthe use of all diplomatic tools at its disposal to advocate towards de- criminalisation of sexual relations between consenting same-sex partners; calls for the full implementation of the LGBTIQ equality strategy 2020- 2025 as the EU’s tool for improving the situation of LGBTIQ people around the world and calls on the EU and Member States to thoroughly and consistently apply the EU guidelines on protection of human rights of LGBTIQ persons across its external policy;
Amendment 454 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 40
Paragraph 40
40. Stresses the multitude of threats to human rights caused by modern warfare and conflicts around the world today which are often exacerbated by the use of new and destructive technologies; underlines that in addition to the states parties themselves, such conflicts often involve non-state agents including private military and security companies as well as terrorist organisations; stresses the disastrous humanitarian consequences of these conflicts and their devastating impact on civilians, who are directly targeted, have to endure grave human rights violations, and often have no or limited access to justice or legal remedies; calls for the EU to continue developing and implementing tools to enable it to respond swiftly and efficiently to such conflicts, to help put an end to the perpetration of human rights violations, and to provide assistance to the victims;
Amendment 467 #
41. Strongly condemns the grave violations of human rights committed by the Russian armed forces in the context of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, as well as those perpetrated by the Kremlin-backed private security company Wagner Group most notably in the African continent; underlines the utmost importance of ensuring accountability for these violations and calls for the EU and its Member States to continue to offer their full support for the actors, measures and mechanisms to this end, including the Ukrainian prosecutors, investigators and judiciary, the ICC, the Commission of Inquiry of the UN Human Rights Council, and national investigations under the principle of universal jurisdiction; stresses the importance of swiftly gathering and preserving evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity and welcomes the efforts of independent civil society to this end; calls on the Commission to provide all the necessary assistance in this process, including additional funding from the NDICI – Global Europe, and urges the Member States to engage in this process themselves whenever they are in a position to do so; welcomes the amended mandate of the EU Advisory Mission to Ukraine and the Commission’s proposal to extend the mandate of Eurojust to support the fight against impunity; calls for an informed decision to be made about the most appropriate solution to hold to account the individuals and entities responsible for enabling Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the war crimes committed on Ukrainian territory, which could include the creation of a special international court or enabling the ICC to deliberate on these crimes;
Amendment 478 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 42
Paragraph 42
42. Reiterates that the right to be free from hunger is a human right; underlines its grave concerns about the challenges to the right to food and food security and the affordability of food in many countries around the world; calls for the EU, the Member States and the international community to immediately step up their efforts to halt the trend of emerging serious food shortages; underlines that while the parlous food security situation has several causes, it has been aggravated by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the fifth-largest grain exporter in the world, with tremendous consequences in several areas of the world, particularly in the African continent; strongly condemns the use of food insecurity as a political instrument of war;
Amendment 479 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 42
Paragraph 42
42. Reiterates that the right to be free from hunger is a human right; underlines its grave concerns about the challenges to the right to food and food security and the affordability of food in many countries around the world; calls for the EU, the Member States and the international community to immediately step up their efforts to halt the trend of emerging serious food shortages; underlines that while the parlous food security situation has several causes, it has been aggravated by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the fifth-largest grain exporter in the world; strongly condemns the use or the threat of food insecurity as a political instrument of war;
Amendment 531 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 48
Paragraph 48
48. Stresses that human rights must fully encompass the digital sphere and must be protected from the improper use of technology; underlines the risks posed by digital technologies to personal liberty and democracy at large and condemns the role of digital technologies in human rights violations; calls for more intensive efforts to establish a comprehensive, global, and binding legal framework on digital technologies, which should balance the need to protect human rights with taking advantage of the possible gains such technologies can offer for human well- being;