Strasbourg, October 23, 2008 - The European Parliament today held, in the plenary sitting, debates on cases of breaches of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Motions for resolutions were discussed and voted upon, in regard to cases from Venezuela, Congo and Burma. Romanian MEP Renate Weber, Head of NLP Delegation in the European Parliament, member of the Development Committee, is co-author for two of the resolutions (Venezuela and Congo) and had the following interventions in the plenary:

Speech on Venezuela

"For several years the situation of the opposition in Venezuela has been very difficult and questioning the Venezuelan democracy has been legitimate. But what happens these days is a proof that Venezuela´s democracy and rule of law are a mockery. To use an administrative measure in order to ban people for 15 years to hold or run for official positions is unacceptable. Only Courts should be allowed to decide so and only after convicting perpetrators of serious crimes.

The perversity of this measure can be easily noticed when acknowledging that the vast majority of those banned are from the political opposition, a practice that most likely will not be used only for this November elections but may continue for the elections which will follow.

It is not surprising this "inhabilitacion de politicos" happens in a time when human rights advocates who criticized the current government were expelled from Venezuela, and when very suspicious accidents resulting in the death of persons who expressed criticism are not properly investigated.

The European Parliament must send a firm message to the public opinion in Venezuela that "inhabilitaciones politicas" is an undemocratic practice and contrary to the very foundation of rule of law.
We must strongly reject the allegations of the Venezuelan Vice Minister for Europe that the European Parliament denied the vote in September on this resolution because it was seen as "a vote against the anticorruption fight". Such manoeuvre to manipulate the Venezuelan public opinion is undignified for a minister for Europe. And we also strongly reject his accusation that what we do here is an attack against a sovereign country. This resolution is the expression of our concern regarding the democratic evolution and respect for human rights in a country whose people we highly admire and respect."

Speech on Congo

"The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo is profoundly traumatizing to the Congolese society. Amongst other atrocities, rape has been used for many years as a weapon of war and tens of thousands of women and girls are suffering. Our empathy is not enough!

We have to name this phenomenon as it is: genocide. Without any doubt there is an ongoing genocide against women in Congo and we cannot longer afford to turn a blind eye on this dreadful situation! Words are not enough to describe the horrors these women have to endure! Undoubtedly the clashes of the rebels in Eastern provinces will bring along more and more violence including sexual violence.

How many women and girls have to die, be gang raped, butchered, enslaved, contaminated with HIV, rejected by their communities until we decide at international level to engage seriously and with a long term view on this subject?

There should be no tolerance of the sexual violence against girls and women! The impunity of the perpetrators must come to an end and the rule of law has to be restored in the Eastern provinces of DRC!

We all have to acknowledge that the situation demands a multifaceted approach: peace needs to be achieved, the rule of law established and the society saved of the poverty trap in the Eastern provinces of DRC. This implies that the exploitation of Congolese natural resources must follow the rule of law as well".