Activities of Samira RAFAELA related to 2020/2273(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030: bringing nature back into our lives
Amendments (9)
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses that the degradation of ecosystems and the stress on them caused by climate change is leading to the extinction of species and the loss of biodiversity at unprecedented rates and is threatening the human rights of current and future generations, such as the rights to life, health, food, water and sanitation, as well as the rights of the most vulnerable people, including women and children, the rights of indigenous peoples and the rights of rural and natural-resource-dependent communities; also emphasises that the degradation of and stress on ecosystems is undermining progress towards the achievement of most of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, in particular the objectives of ending poverty and hunger, achieving food security, ensuring water and sanitation and ensuring healthy lives;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Underlines the need for urgent efforts to maintain biodiversity, in particular by taking effective actions to simultaneously protect human rights and conserve and sustainably use nature; calls in this regard for the development of a holistic and human-rights-based EU policy approach aimed at preventing biodiversity loss and degradation; highlights the importance of biodiversity conservation in our Overseas Countries and Territories and Outermost Regions, and emphasizes in this regard, the need to continue with EU funds and programs that support the conservation of biodiversity; also stresses the need to strengthen international environment and human rights law, environmental legislation and procedural environmental and human rights, in particular by improving access to information, public participation and access to justice, and by supporting and promoting the crucial role of local communities, indigenous peoples and environmental human rights defenders in maintaining biodiversity;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Welcomes progress towards recognition of the linkage between human rights and the health of the biosphere at international and national level; fully supports in this respect the efforts by the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment to develop guidance on human rights obligations relating to the environment, ecosystems and biodiversity, including the protection of nature and oceans, the drastic decline of bees and other insects and a transition towards agriculture that produces food without chemical pesticides;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Believes that the EU should seek cooperation with its trading partners to raise and strengthen the awareness of the biodiversity dimension in trade, work to include binding levels of biodiversity protection in the upcoming work on WTO reform, and in other international trade fora, as well as in our free trade agreements, any such introduction must be based on scientific evidence and never be used as green-washed protectionism; stresses that provisions of biodiversity belongs in all free trade agreements, investment agreements, and voluntary partnership agreements (VPAs) under FLEGT;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls on the Commission to mainstream biodiversity as a human right in EU external action and trade policy, and promote ambitious biodiversity-related policies in international fora, in accordance with the European Green Deal and the new EU Biodiversity Strategy; underlines that trade agreements can have a positive contribution to upholding biodiversity in third countries through Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) chapters, if properly enforces; stresses that the Chief Trade Enforcement Officer can oversee compliance of such agreements in close cooperation with the European Parliament; also calls on the Commission to deal with cooperation issues related to the conservation of biodiversity and respect for international environmental and human rights obligations in a common and consistent way, in particular through EU international comprehensive and sectoral agreements and political dialogues with partner countries; urges the Commission, in this regard, to make the most of human rights and sustainable development impact assessments and related recommendations; also calls on the Commission to draw up guidelines on the human right to a clean, healthy, safe and sustainable environment;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Considers that the EU’s trade policy and green diplomacy should aim to phase out fossil fuels and environmentally harmful subsidies as a matter of urgency in accordance with the commitments taken at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh in 2009; invites the Commission to agree on a roadmap with each trade partner covered by a trade agreement, with milestones in place, and to show leadership in relevant international forums, in particular by advocating for binding targets at global level to increase ambition and ensure that post- 2020 action on global biodiversity will be effective;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Pays tribute to defenders of environmental human rights and land rights, local community representatives, lawyers and journalists standing up to protect natural resources, and strongly condemns the killings of such people and violent acts against them; calls on the Commission and the European External Action Service to continue to systematically take up cases of defenders of environmental human rights and land rights facing threats of violence with the countries concerned; urges the Commission to define a specific protection and support strategy for local communities and defenders of environmental human rights and land rights; also calls for enhanced support for civil society organisations working to protect the environment and biodiversity, in particular through the establishment of partnerships and the building up of capacity to defend the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities;
Amendment 65 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Welcomes the commitment of the EU heads of state and governments under the ‘Leaders’ Pledge for Nature’ to end environmental crimes, and with this aim, to ensure effective and dissuasive legal frameworks; urges, in this regard, the EU and the Member States to redouble their efforts to honour their obligations relating to environmental crimes and to promote an international approach to environmental criminal law; calls for the setting up of legal frameworks to ensure access to effective remedies in cases of loss and degradation of biodiversity; encouragescalls on the EU and the Member States to pursue new initiatives in order to make ‘ecocide’ a crime recognised under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; recommends that the scope of the serious human rights violations covered by the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime be extended to include environmental crimes.
Amendment 78 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Welcomes the Commission’s intention to present a legislative proposal in Spring 2021 that will prohibit the placing of products associated with deforestation or forest degradation from the EU market; stresses the necessary complementary work on the supply side by highlighting the example of the Voluntary Partnership Agreements under FLEGT aiming to preserve forests, being the natural habitat of many endangered species, with its objectives to encourage sustainable forest management, to address deforestation and forest degradation, and to promote sustainable development, as it has committed to in the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, the Paris Agreement, and the Convention of Biological Diversity Aichi targets; calls on the Commission to adopt a moratorium on imports of wild animals from reported emerging infectious disease hotspots;