14 Jan European Parliament resolution on human rights in Serbia

European Parliament adopted an urgent resolution on 6 December 2021 on forced labour in the Linglong factory and environmental protests in Serbia.

European Parliament expresseed deep concerns over the alleged forced labour, violation of human rights and human trafficking of around 500 Vietnamese people at the Chinese Linglong Tire factory construction site in Serbia and urged the Serbian authorities to investigate the case carefully and ensure respect for fundamental human rights in the factory, especially labour rights, to provide the EU with the conclusions of its investigations and to hold the perpetrators to account.

Further, in the Resolution EP Expressed its deep concern over serious problems with corruption and the rule of law in the environment area, over the general lack of transparency and over environmental and social impact assessments of infrastructure projects, including from Chinese investments and loans as well as from multinational companies such as Rio Tinto; notes, in this context and called on the EU and the Serbian authorities to follow up on the legitimate concerns expressed in the environmental protests happening in the last month in many cities across Serbia, after the announcement of the amendments to the Law on Land Expropriation, which would allow quicker expropriation of private ground and the Law on Referendums and People’s Initiative.

In connection with that, EP also expressed deep concern over the increasing violence by extremist and hooligan groups against peaceful environmental demonstrations, regrated the amount of force used by the police against protesters, condemns the violent behaviour of hooligans towards peaceful demonstrators and strongly condemns any violation of the fundamental right to peaceful assembly. It urged the Serbian authorities to properly investigate recent cases of mass protests during which the police force allegedly overstepped its authority or failed to protect protesters from violence and protect their human right to peaceful assembly.

EP shared its concern over the limited time and space available to openly debate the Law on Referendums and People’s Initiative and amendments to the Law on Land Expropriation and took note of the decision to withdraw and reconsider the Law on Land Expropriation and the adopted amendments to the Law on Referendums and People’s Initiative.

Ultimately, EP stated that the long-term trends of media bias and the blurring of lines between the activities of state officials, police and party politicians are problematic and shared its regrets of the deterioration of media freedom and the increase in abusive language, intimidation and even hate speech towards members of the parliamentary opposition, independent intellectuals, NGOs, journalists and prominent individuals, whose responsibility to act with respect towards all representatives of the media is of the utmost importance.

Here you can find the full text of the resolution: 

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2021-0511_EN.html

References from the website of European Parliament