Europarlementariërs willen maatregelen tegen het blokkeren van internet door dictatoriale regimes (en)

MEPs call on the European Commission to table rules to step up monitoring of internet blocking tools by autocratic regimes in the annual human rights report for 2010, approved by the Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday. The report also calls on EU Member States to help detain suspects wanted by the International Criminal Court.

The "Arab Spring" showed the power and potential of the internet and social networking, say MEPs, noting that these have become a key vehicle for exercising the right to freedom of opinion and expression. The report calls for more support to promote freedom of the media and protect independent journalists and bloggers.

Internet blocking tools

The report also calls for increased monitoring of internet use and of the new technologies used by autocratic regimes to restrict internet access. "Internet service providers must learn the lessons of past mistakes, such as Vodafone’s decision to give in to demands from the Egyptian authorities in the last weeks of the Mubarak regime to suspend services, and to disseminate pro-government propaganda", says the text.

The report invites the European Commission to table, by 2013, regulatory proposals to improve monitoring of exports of goods and services that can be used to block access to websites. These proposals should include provisions to enhance transparency for EU and EU-based companies, it adds.

International criminal court

MEPs urge the EU and its Member States to co-operate more consistently with the International Criminal Court (ICC), and to help detain suspects wanted by it. They call on all Member States, but in particular the Republic of Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal, to sign framework agreements with the ICC in order to facilitate cooperation and to incorporate the ICC's founding Rome Statute fully into their national laws.

Children's rights

The report calls on the Council and Commission to accelerate efforts to achieve universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and to promote their enforcement. MEPs also ask the EU External Action Service to include a section on children's rights in its annual human rights reports.

EU institutions and foreign policy

The report welcomes plans to establish the post of an EU special representative for human rights this summer.

MEPs also stress the need to avoid double standards in the EU's human rights policy and other external policies, and urge that the External Action Service's annual human rights report should systematically name countries.

The rapporteur is Richard Howitt (S&D, UK).

Next steps

The plenary vote is scheduled for April.