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Communications Officer
lpearson@transparency.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Communications Officer <\/p>\n","post_title":"Under the influence: call for an investigation in the European Parliament","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"under-the-influence-call-for-an-investigation-in-the-european-parliament","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2816","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2450,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_content":"A report by Democracy Centre For Transparency (DCT)\u00a0 published a unique report to examine UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver<\/a>. The report concluded that EU has long advocated an approach based on promoting, protecting and respecting human rights\r\nthat was reflected in its domestic as well as foreign policy. This approach has been part of the texts of\r\nagreements that the EU has signed over the years where a phrase regarding observing human rights\r\nhas always been there.\r\n\r\nDCT argued that despite the EU\u2019s commitment to human rights, including having dialogues with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations, the Union has signed agreements with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations such as the UAE for economic and political considerations. The EU needs to affirm its human rights stance by reconsidering agreements signed with other countries that have a record of human rights violations.\r\n\r\nThe UAE has a very negative record to mistreating migrant workers, torturing political prisoners at home\r\nand abroad, suppressing freedom of expression, human trafficking and intervening in other countries\r\ncausing further human rights violations such as in Yemen. The UAE\u2019s involvement in Yemen has led\r\nto documented 87 human rights violations, some of Conclusion which amount to war crimes, which claimed the lives of some 1,000 civilians. The UAE\u2019s intervention in other countries have put an end to or threatened democratic regimes such as in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.\r\n\r\nFor the above-reasons, and in line with the EU-human rights approach, the EU is urged to reconsider\r\nits visa-waiver program with the UAE until it complies by protecting and promoting human rights. By doing so, the EU proves once again that its commitment to human rights is serious and comprehensive.\r\n\r\nThe report offered a set of the following recommendations:\r\n\r\n1. The EU should reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE due to the country\u2019s involvement in\r\nvarious human and financial crimes at home and abroad that resulted in the death of 1,000 civilians\r\nat least.\r\n\r\n2. The EU should establish a monitoring body that monitor the activities of governments that have\r\npartnership agreements with the EU to make sure human rights are protected and respected.\r\n\r\n3. The EU should not separate between its own human rights values and that of its partners as such a\r\nbehavior undermines the credibility of the EU as an advocate of human rights globally.\r\n\r\n4. The UAE should adopt a comprehensive human rights approach that protect the rights of all people\r\nregardless of sex, age, race, religion or social status. Being a business hub does not save the country\r\nthe responsibility over human rights violations.\r\n\r\n5. The EU should make sure that its partners, including the UAE, act according to its general foreign policy outlines, such as the situation in Yemen, where the UAE is accused of committing war crimes.\r\n\r\n6. The EU should re-blacklist the UAE as a haven for tax as the country is heavily involved in tax evasion, where drug trade and modern-day slavery are still practiced.\r\n\r\n7. The EU should make sure the UAE stops human trafficking and modern slavery on its soil or abroad,\r\nespecially in Libya, where thousands of migrants are exploited on their way to the EU via the sea.\r\n\r\n8. The EU should pass legislations that ensure the protection of women rights by partner countries including the UAE, where women still need the approval of their husbands to get a job.\r\n\r\n9. The UAE should give political opposition the platform to express their opinion without fear and\r\nshould release all human rights defenders from jails, where wide-spread torture was reported.\r\n\r\n10.The UAE should release all political prisoners in prisons run by it in Yemen, including prohibiting\r\ntorture at home or outside. The EU should actively be engaged with the UAE to make sure no violations\r\nagainst civilians are committed by the UAE in Yemen.\r\n\r\n11.The EU should conduct visits to construction and prison facilities in the UAE where migrant workers\r\nlive dire conditions and some of them get deported illegally over differences with their employers of\r\nattempting to demand their own rights due to the sponsorship system.\r\n\r\n12. NGOs and civil society in the EU should play a greater role in making sure EU partners don\u2019t commit\r\nviolations or crimes that contradict the values of the EU.","post_title":"New Report: How the United Arab Emirates Disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"An Examination of UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver\r\n","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"new-report-how-the-united-arab-emirates-disqualified-from-eu-visa-waiver","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2450","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"146","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2438,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_content":"The EU has been one of the most prominent defenders and promoters of human rights globally. This EU approach has been reflected by its domestic as well as foreign policy, including by stressing the importance of human rights in its agreements with third parties.\r\n\r\nDespite this EU approach, it has signed a visa-waiver program with the UAE in 2015 despite the long record of the country in human rights violations, including violations against migrant workers, its own nationals, as well as violations in other countries, such as torture and involvement in military activities that claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 civilians.\r\n\r\nThe UAE violations extend to committing financial crimes such as turning Dubai into a tax haven and engaging in money laundry, some of which is used to finance terrorism. In light of this, the EU is urged to reconsider its agreement with the UAE and to terminate the waiver program with the UAE to further assert its commitment to promoting and protecting human rights. This includes assuring protecting women rights, political dissidents, migrant workers, refugees, Europeans, and minorities.\r\n\r\nThe EU is urged to set more transparent means in its dealing with the UAE including its financial dealings. The EU is urged to reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE until it abides by the EY general guidelines in relation to human rights.","post_title":"Why the United Arab Emirates should be disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"On 6 May, 2015 the European Union (EU) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a 90-day visa waiver agreement in Brussels. ","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"democracy-centre-for-transparency-dct-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2438","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"163","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":false,"total_page":1},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_3"};
You can read the full letter that has been sent to the European Parliament today here.<\/a> Communications Officer <\/p>\n","post_title":"Under the influence: call for an investigation in the European Parliament","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"under-the-influence-call-for-an-investigation-in-the-european-parliament","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2816","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2450,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_content":"A report by Democracy Centre For Transparency (DCT)\u00a0 published a unique report to examine UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver<\/a>. The report concluded that EU has long advocated an approach based on promoting, protecting and respecting human rights\r\nthat was reflected in its domestic as well as foreign policy. This approach has been part of the texts of\r\nagreements that the EU has signed over the years where a phrase regarding observing human rights\r\nhas always been there.\r\n\r\nDCT argued that despite the EU\u2019s commitment to human rights, including having dialogues with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations, the Union has signed agreements with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations such as the UAE for economic and political considerations. The EU needs to affirm its human rights stance by reconsidering agreements signed with other countries that have a record of human rights violations.\r\n\r\nThe UAE has a very negative record to mistreating migrant workers, torturing political prisoners at home\r\nand abroad, suppressing freedom of expression, human trafficking and intervening in other countries\r\ncausing further human rights violations such as in Yemen. The UAE\u2019s involvement in Yemen has led\r\nto documented 87 human rights violations, some of Conclusion which amount to war crimes, which claimed the lives of some 1,000 civilians. The UAE\u2019s intervention in other countries have put an end to or threatened democratic regimes such as in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.\r\n\r\nFor the above-reasons, and in line with the EU-human rights approach, the EU is urged to reconsider\r\nits visa-waiver program with the UAE until it complies by protecting and promoting human rights. By doing so, the EU proves once again that its commitment to human rights is serious and comprehensive.\r\n\r\nThe report offered a set of the following recommendations:\r\n\r\n1. The EU should reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE due to the country\u2019s involvement in\r\nvarious human and financial crimes at home and abroad that resulted in the death of 1,000 civilians\r\nat least.\r\n\r\n2. The EU should establish a monitoring body that monitor the activities of governments that have\r\npartnership agreements with the EU to make sure human rights are protected and respected.\r\n\r\n3. The EU should not separate between its own human rights values and that of its partners as such a\r\nbehavior undermines the credibility of the EU as an advocate of human rights globally.\r\n\r\n4. The UAE should adopt a comprehensive human rights approach that protect the rights of all people\r\nregardless of sex, age, race, religion or social status. Being a business hub does not save the country\r\nthe responsibility over human rights violations.\r\n\r\n5. The EU should make sure that its partners, including the UAE, act according to its general foreign policy outlines, such as the situation in Yemen, where the UAE is accused of committing war crimes.\r\n\r\n6. The EU should re-blacklist the UAE as a haven for tax as the country is heavily involved in tax evasion, where drug trade and modern-day slavery are still practiced.\r\n\r\n7. The EU should make sure the UAE stops human trafficking and modern slavery on its soil or abroad,\r\nespecially in Libya, where thousands of migrants are exploited on their way to the EU via the sea.\r\n\r\n8. The EU should pass legislations that ensure the protection of women rights by partner countries including the UAE, where women still need the approval of their husbands to get a job.\r\n\r\n9. The UAE should give political opposition the platform to express their opinion without fear and\r\nshould release all human rights defenders from jails, where wide-spread torture was reported.\r\n\r\n10.The UAE should release all political prisoners in prisons run by it in Yemen, including prohibiting\r\ntorture at home or outside. The EU should actively be engaged with the UAE to make sure no violations\r\nagainst civilians are committed by the UAE in Yemen.\r\n\r\n11.The EU should conduct visits to construction and prison facilities in the UAE where migrant workers\r\nlive dire conditions and some of them get deported illegally over differences with their employers of\r\nattempting to demand their own rights due to the sponsorship system.\r\n\r\n12. NGOs and civil society in the EU should play a greater role in making sure EU partners don\u2019t commit\r\nviolations or crimes that contradict the values of the EU.","post_title":"New Report: How the United Arab Emirates Disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"An Examination of UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver\r\n","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"new-report-how-the-united-arab-emirates-disqualified-from-eu-visa-waiver","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2450","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"146","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2438,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_content":"The EU has been one of the most prominent defenders and promoters of human rights globally. This EU approach has been reflected by its domestic as well as foreign policy, including by stressing the importance of human rights in its agreements with third parties.\r\n\r\nDespite this EU approach, it has signed a visa-waiver program with the UAE in 2015 despite the long record of the country in human rights violations, including violations against migrant workers, its own nationals, as well as violations in other countries, such as torture and involvement in military activities that claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 civilians.\r\n\r\nThe UAE violations extend to committing financial crimes such as turning Dubai into a tax haven and engaging in money laundry, some of which is used to finance terrorism. In light of this, the EU is urged to reconsider its agreement with the UAE and to terminate the waiver program with the UAE to further assert its commitment to promoting and protecting human rights. This includes assuring protecting women rights, political dissidents, migrant workers, refugees, Europeans, and minorities.\r\n\r\nThe EU is urged to set more transparent means in its dealing with the UAE including its financial dealings. The EU is urged to reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE until it abides by the EY general guidelines in relation to human rights.","post_title":"Why the United Arab Emirates should be disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"On 6 May, 2015 the European Union (EU) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a 90-day visa waiver agreement in Brussels. ","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"democracy-centre-for-transparency-dct-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2438","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"163","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":false,"total_page":1},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_3"};
Such an investigation could also review the safeguards the Parliament has in place to protect itself from undue influence more generally, and to overhaul the systems it has for protecting its integrity. We conducted such an assessment in 2014<\/a> but we are unaware of any assessment by Parliament itself of how to deal with corruption risks. Given the prevalent public concern about the documented attempts of authoritarian governments round the world to undermine democratic elections and institutions, and the upcoming European elections, such a review would be very timely. It is important for us to also highlight that conducting such a review is one of the European Parliament\u2019s commitments under the UN Convention Against Corruption, which the European Union ratified in 2008. There has been no progress on this for the past decade, despite calling on the EU numerous times to get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can read the full letter that has been sent to the European Parliament today here.<\/a> Communications Officer <\/p>\n","post_title":"Under the influence: call for an investigation in the European Parliament","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"under-the-influence-call-for-an-investigation-in-the-european-parliament","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2816","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2450,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_content":"A report by Democracy Centre For Transparency (DCT)\u00a0 published a unique report to examine UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver<\/a>. The report concluded that EU has long advocated an approach based on promoting, protecting and respecting human rights\r\nthat was reflected in its domestic as well as foreign policy. This approach has been part of the texts of\r\nagreements that the EU has signed over the years where a phrase regarding observing human rights\r\nhas always been there.\r\n\r\nDCT argued that despite the EU\u2019s commitment to human rights, including having dialogues with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations, the Union has signed agreements with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations such as the UAE for economic and political considerations. The EU needs to affirm its human rights stance by reconsidering agreements signed with other countries that have a record of human rights violations.\r\n\r\nThe UAE has a very negative record to mistreating migrant workers, torturing political prisoners at home\r\nand abroad, suppressing freedom of expression, human trafficking and intervening in other countries\r\ncausing further human rights violations such as in Yemen. The UAE\u2019s involvement in Yemen has led\r\nto documented 87 human rights violations, some of Conclusion which amount to war crimes, which claimed the lives of some 1,000 civilians. The UAE\u2019s intervention in other countries have put an end to or threatened democratic regimes such as in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.\r\n\r\nFor the above-reasons, and in line with the EU-human rights approach, the EU is urged to reconsider\r\nits visa-waiver program with the UAE until it complies by protecting and promoting human rights. By doing so, the EU proves once again that its commitment to human rights is serious and comprehensive.\r\n\r\nThe report offered a set of the following recommendations:\r\n\r\n1. The EU should reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE due to the country\u2019s involvement in\r\nvarious human and financial crimes at home and abroad that resulted in the death of 1,000 civilians\r\nat least.\r\n\r\n2. The EU should establish a monitoring body that monitor the activities of governments that have\r\npartnership agreements with the EU to make sure human rights are protected and respected.\r\n\r\n3. The EU should not separate between its own human rights values and that of its partners as such a\r\nbehavior undermines the credibility of the EU as an advocate of human rights globally.\r\n\r\n4. The UAE should adopt a comprehensive human rights approach that protect the rights of all people\r\nregardless of sex, age, race, religion or social status. Being a business hub does not save the country\r\nthe responsibility over human rights violations.\r\n\r\n5. The EU should make sure that its partners, including the UAE, act according to its general foreign policy outlines, such as the situation in Yemen, where the UAE is accused of committing war crimes.\r\n\r\n6. The EU should re-blacklist the UAE as a haven for tax as the country is heavily involved in tax evasion, where drug trade and modern-day slavery are still practiced.\r\n\r\n7. The EU should make sure the UAE stops human trafficking and modern slavery on its soil or abroad,\r\nespecially in Libya, where thousands of migrants are exploited on their way to the EU via the sea.\r\n\r\n8. The EU should pass legislations that ensure the protection of women rights by partner countries including the UAE, where women still need the approval of their husbands to get a job.\r\n\r\n9. The UAE should give political opposition the platform to express their opinion without fear and\r\nshould release all human rights defenders from jails, where wide-spread torture was reported.\r\n\r\n10.The UAE should release all political prisoners in prisons run by it in Yemen, including prohibiting\r\ntorture at home or outside. The EU should actively be engaged with the UAE to make sure no violations\r\nagainst civilians are committed by the UAE in Yemen.\r\n\r\n11.The EU should conduct visits to construction and prison facilities in the UAE where migrant workers\r\nlive dire conditions and some of them get deported illegally over differences with their employers of\r\nattempting to demand their own rights due to the sponsorship system.\r\n\r\n12. NGOs and civil society in the EU should play a greater role in making sure EU partners don\u2019t commit\r\nviolations or crimes that contradict the values of the EU.","post_title":"New Report: How the United Arab Emirates Disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"An Examination of UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver\r\n","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"new-report-how-the-united-arab-emirates-disqualified-from-eu-visa-waiver","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2450","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"146","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2438,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_content":"The EU has been one of the most prominent defenders and promoters of human rights globally. This EU approach has been reflected by its domestic as well as foreign policy, including by stressing the importance of human rights in its agreements with third parties.\r\n\r\nDespite this EU approach, it has signed a visa-waiver program with the UAE in 2015 despite the long record of the country in human rights violations, including violations against migrant workers, its own nationals, as well as violations in other countries, such as torture and involvement in military activities that claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 civilians.\r\n\r\nThe UAE violations extend to committing financial crimes such as turning Dubai into a tax haven and engaging in money laundry, some of which is used to finance terrorism. In light of this, the EU is urged to reconsider its agreement with the UAE and to terminate the waiver program with the UAE to further assert its commitment to promoting and protecting human rights. This includes assuring protecting women rights, political dissidents, migrant workers, refugees, Europeans, and minorities.\r\n\r\nThe EU is urged to set more transparent means in its dealing with the UAE including its financial dealings. The EU is urged to reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE until it abides by the EY general guidelines in relation to human rights.","post_title":"Why the United Arab Emirates should be disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"On 6 May, 2015 the European Union (EU) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a 90-day visa waiver agreement in Brussels. ","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"democracy-centre-for-transparency-dct-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2438","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"163","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":false,"total_page":1},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_3"};
The PACE resolution, passed following the investigation, calls upon the European Parliament to also conduct an independent investigation and to draw on its recommendations and improve procedures according to the outcomes and findings. From what we can see this has still not been done and there is no evidence that it is being prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such an investigation could also review the safeguards the Parliament has in place to protect itself from undue influence more generally, and to overhaul the systems it has for protecting its integrity. We conducted such an assessment in 2014<\/a> but we are unaware of any assessment by Parliament itself of how to deal with corruption risks. Given the prevalent public concern about the documented attempts of authoritarian governments round the world to undermine democratic elections and institutions, and the upcoming European elections, such a review would be very timely. It is important for us to also highlight that conducting such a review is one of the European Parliament\u2019s commitments under the UN Convention Against Corruption, which the European Union ratified in 2008. There has been no progress on this for the past decade, despite calling on the EU numerous times to get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can read the full letter that has been sent to the European Parliament today here.<\/a> Communications Officer <\/p>\n","post_title":"Under the influence: call for an investigation in the European Parliament","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"under-the-influence-call-for-an-investigation-in-the-european-parliament","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2816","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2450,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_content":"A report by Democracy Centre For Transparency (DCT)\u00a0 published a unique report to examine UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver<\/a>. The report concluded that EU has long advocated an approach based on promoting, protecting and respecting human rights\r\nthat was reflected in its domestic as well as foreign policy. This approach has been part of the texts of\r\nagreements that the EU has signed over the years where a phrase regarding observing human rights\r\nhas always been there.\r\n\r\nDCT argued that despite the EU\u2019s commitment to human rights, including having dialogues with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations, the Union has signed agreements with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations such as the UAE for economic and political considerations. The EU needs to affirm its human rights stance by reconsidering agreements signed with other countries that have a record of human rights violations.\r\n\r\nThe UAE has a very negative record to mistreating migrant workers, torturing political prisoners at home\r\nand abroad, suppressing freedom of expression, human trafficking and intervening in other countries\r\ncausing further human rights violations such as in Yemen. The UAE\u2019s involvement in Yemen has led\r\nto documented 87 human rights violations, some of Conclusion which amount to war crimes, which claimed the lives of some 1,000 civilians. The UAE\u2019s intervention in other countries have put an end to or threatened democratic regimes such as in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.\r\n\r\nFor the above-reasons, and in line with the EU-human rights approach, the EU is urged to reconsider\r\nits visa-waiver program with the UAE until it complies by protecting and promoting human rights. By doing so, the EU proves once again that its commitment to human rights is serious and comprehensive.\r\n\r\nThe report offered a set of the following recommendations:\r\n\r\n1. The EU should reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE due to the country\u2019s involvement in\r\nvarious human and financial crimes at home and abroad that resulted in the death of 1,000 civilians\r\nat least.\r\n\r\n2. The EU should establish a monitoring body that monitor the activities of governments that have\r\npartnership agreements with the EU to make sure human rights are protected and respected.\r\n\r\n3. The EU should not separate between its own human rights values and that of its partners as such a\r\nbehavior undermines the credibility of the EU as an advocate of human rights globally.\r\n\r\n4. The UAE should adopt a comprehensive human rights approach that protect the rights of all people\r\nregardless of sex, age, race, religion or social status. Being a business hub does not save the country\r\nthe responsibility over human rights violations.\r\n\r\n5. The EU should make sure that its partners, including the UAE, act according to its general foreign policy outlines, such as the situation in Yemen, where the UAE is accused of committing war crimes.\r\n\r\n6. The EU should re-blacklist the UAE as a haven for tax as the country is heavily involved in tax evasion, where drug trade and modern-day slavery are still practiced.\r\n\r\n7. The EU should make sure the UAE stops human trafficking and modern slavery on its soil or abroad,\r\nespecially in Libya, where thousands of migrants are exploited on their way to the EU via the sea.\r\n\r\n8. The EU should pass legislations that ensure the protection of women rights by partner countries including the UAE, where women still need the approval of their husbands to get a job.\r\n\r\n9. The UAE should give political opposition the platform to express their opinion without fear and\r\nshould release all human rights defenders from jails, where wide-spread torture was reported.\r\n\r\n10.The UAE should release all political prisoners in prisons run by it in Yemen, including prohibiting\r\ntorture at home or outside. The EU should actively be engaged with the UAE to make sure no violations\r\nagainst civilians are committed by the UAE in Yemen.\r\n\r\n11.The EU should conduct visits to construction and prison facilities in the UAE where migrant workers\r\nlive dire conditions and some of them get deported illegally over differences with their employers of\r\nattempting to demand their own rights due to the sponsorship system.\r\n\r\n12. NGOs and civil society in the EU should play a greater role in making sure EU partners don\u2019t commit\r\nviolations or crimes that contradict the values of the EU.","post_title":"New Report: How the United Arab Emirates Disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"An Examination of UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver\r\n","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"new-report-how-the-united-arab-emirates-disqualified-from-eu-visa-waiver","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2450","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"146","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2438,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_content":"The EU has been one of the most prominent defenders and promoters of human rights globally. This EU approach has been reflected by its domestic as well as foreign policy, including by stressing the importance of human rights in its agreements with third parties.\r\n\r\nDespite this EU approach, it has signed a visa-waiver program with the UAE in 2015 despite the long record of the country in human rights violations, including violations against migrant workers, its own nationals, as well as violations in other countries, such as torture and involvement in military activities that claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 civilians.\r\n\r\nThe UAE violations extend to committing financial crimes such as turning Dubai into a tax haven and engaging in money laundry, some of which is used to finance terrorism. In light of this, the EU is urged to reconsider its agreement with the UAE and to terminate the waiver program with the UAE to further assert its commitment to promoting and protecting human rights. This includes assuring protecting women rights, political dissidents, migrant workers, refugees, Europeans, and minorities.\r\n\r\nThe EU is urged to set more transparent means in its dealing with the UAE including its financial dealings. The EU is urged to reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE until it abides by the EY general guidelines in relation to human rights.","post_title":"Why the United Arab Emirates should be disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"On 6 May, 2015 the European Union (EU) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a 90-day visa waiver agreement in Brussels. ","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"democracy-centre-for-transparency-dct-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2438","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"163","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":false,"total_page":1},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_3"};
PACE has not been the only gathering of Parliamentarians to be targeted by the Azeri regime<\/a>. Members of the European Parliament were also invited to the country by organisations close to the Azeri government. The European Parliament\u2019s Advisory Committee did investigate this and found that seven MEPs were in breach of the Code of Conduct, however, none were sanctioned at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PACE resolution, passed following the investigation, calls upon the European Parliament to also conduct an independent investigation and to draw on its recommendations and improve procedures according to the outcomes and findings. From what we can see this has still not been done and there is no evidence that it is being prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such an investigation could also review the safeguards the Parliament has in place to protect itself from undue influence more generally, and to overhaul the systems it has for protecting its integrity. We conducted such an assessment in 2014<\/a> but we are unaware of any assessment by Parliament itself of how to deal with corruption risks. Given the prevalent public concern about the documented attempts of authoritarian governments round the world to undermine democratic elections and institutions, and the upcoming European elections, such a review would be very timely. It is important for us to also highlight that conducting such a review is one of the European Parliament\u2019s commitments under the UN Convention Against Corruption, which the European Union ratified in 2008. There has been no progress on this for the past decade, despite calling on the EU numerous times to get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can read the full letter that has been sent to the European Parliament today here.<\/a> Communications Officer <\/p>\n","post_title":"Under the influence: call for an investigation in the European Parliament","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"under-the-influence-call-for-an-investigation-in-the-european-parliament","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2816","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2450,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_content":"A report by Democracy Centre For Transparency (DCT)\u00a0 published a unique report to examine UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver<\/a>. The report concluded that EU has long advocated an approach based on promoting, protecting and respecting human rights\r\nthat was reflected in its domestic as well as foreign policy. This approach has been part of the texts of\r\nagreements that the EU has signed over the years where a phrase regarding observing human rights\r\nhas always been there.\r\n\r\nDCT argued that despite the EU\u2019s commitment to human rights, including having dialogues with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations, the Union has signed agreements with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations such as the UAE for economic and political considerations. The EU needs to affirm its human rights stance by reconsidering agreements signed with other countries that have a record of human rights violations.\r\n\r\nThe UAE has a very negative record to mistreating migrant workers, torturing political prisoners at home\r\nand abroad, suppressing freedom of expression, human trafficking and intervening in other countries\r\ncausing further human rights violations such as in Yemen. The UAE\u2019s involvement in Yemen has led\r\nto documented 87 human rights violations, some of Conclusion which amount to war crimes, which claimed the lives of some 1,000 civilians. The UAE\u2019s intervention in other countries have put an end to or threatened democratic regimes such as in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.\r\n\r\nFor the above-reasons, and in line with the EU-human rights approach, the EU is urged to reconsider\r\nits visa-waiver program with the UAE until it complies by protecting and promoting human rights. By doing so, the EU proves once again that its commitment to human rights is serious and comprehensive.\r\n\r\nThe report offered a set of the following recommendations:\r\n\r\n1. The EU should reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE due to the country\u2019s involvement in\r\nvarious human and financial crimes at home and abroad that resulted in the death of 1,000 civilians\r\nat least.\r\n\r\n2. The EU should establish a monitoring body that monitor the activities of governments that have\r\npartnership agreements with the EU to make sure human rights are protected and respected.\r\n\r\n3. The EU should not separate between its own human rights values and that of its partners as such a\r\nbehavior undermines the credibility of the EU as an advocate of human rights globally.\r\n\r\n4. The UAE should adopt a comprehensive human rights approach that protect the rights of all people\r\nregardless of sex, age, race, religion or social status. Being a business hub does not save the country\r\nthe responsibility over human rights violations.\r\n\r\n5. The EU should make sure that its partners, including the UAE, act according to its general foreign policy outlines, such as the situation in Yemen, where the UAE is accused of committing war crimes.\r\n\r\n6. The EU should re-blacklist the UAE as a haven for tax as the country is heavily involved in tax evasion, where drug trade and modern-day slavery are still practiced.\r\n\r\n7. The EU should make sure the UAE stops human trafficking and modern slavery on its soil or abroad,\r\nespecially in Libya, where thousands of migrants are exploited on their way to the EU via the sea.\r\n\r\n8. The EU should pass legislations that ensure the protection of women rights by partner countries including the UAE, where women still need the approval of their husbands to get a job.\r\n\r\n9. The UAE should give political opposition the platform to express their opinion without fear and\r\nshould release all human rights defenders from jails, where wide-spread torture was reported.\r\n\r\n10.The UAE should release all political prisoners in prisons run by it in Yemen, including prohibiting\r\ntorture at home or outside. The EU should actively be engaged with the UAE to make sure no violations\r\nagainst civilians are committed by the UAE in Yemen.\r\n\r\n11.The EU should conduct visits to construction and prison facilities in the UAE where migrant workers\r\nlive dire conditions and some of them get deported illegally over differences with their employers of\r\nattempting to demand their own rights due to the sponsorship system.\r\n\r\n12. NGOs and civil society in the EU should play a greater role in making sure EU partners don\u2019t commit\r\nviolations or crimes that contradict the values of the EU.","post_title":"New Report: How the United Arab Emirates Disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"An Examination of UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver\r\n","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"new-report-how-the-united-arab-emirates-disqualified-from-eu-visa-waiver","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2450","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"146","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2438,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_content":"The EU has been one of the most prominent defenders and promoters of human rights globally. This EU approach has been reflected by its domestic as well as foreign policy, including by stressing the importance of human rights in its agreements with third parties.\r\n\r\nDespite this EU approach, it has signed a visa-waiver program with the UAE in 2015 despite the long record of the country in human rights violations, including violations against migrant workers, its own nationals, as well as violations in other countries, such as torture and involvement in military activities that claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 civilians.\r\n\r\nThe UAE violations extend to committing financial crimes such as turning Dubai into a tax haven and engaging in money laundry, some of which is used to finance terrorism. In light of this, the EU is urged to reconsider its agreement with the UAE and to terminate the waiver program with the UAE to further assert its commitment to promoting and protecting human rights. This includes assuring protecting women rights, political dissidents, migrant workers, refugees, Europeans, and minorities.\r\n\r\nThe EU is urged to set more transparent means in its dealing with the UAE including its financial dealings. The EU is urged to reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE until it abides by the EY general guidelines in relation to human rights.","post_title":"Why the United Arab Emirates should be disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"On 6 May, 2015 the European Union (EU) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a 90-day visa waiver agreement in Brussels. ","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"democracy-centre-for-transparency-dct-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2438","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"163","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":false,"total_page":1},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_3"};
The story contained a number of allegations about the behaviour of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which led to an independent investigation that corroborated many of these claims. The investigation ended with a resolution<\/a> being passed by PACE with a number of recommendations to avoid this happening in the future. This week, three former members of PACE, one Italian and two Azeris, are on trial in Milan. <\/a>They stand accused of corruption to manipulate the Council of Europe. This trial is the only step that has been taken to hold anyone criminally accountable so far, despite numerous accusations of bribery across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PACE has not been the only gathering of Parliamentarians to be targeted by the Azeri regime<\/a>. Members of the European Parliament were also invited to the country by organisations close to the Azeri government. The European Parliament\u2019s Advisory Committee did investigate this and found that seven MEPs were in breach of the Code of Conduct, however, none were sanctioned at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PACE resolution, passed following the investigation, calls upon the European Parliament to also conduct an independent investigation and to draw on its recommendations and improve procedures according to the outcomes and findings. From what we can see this has still not been done and there is no evidence that it is being prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such an investigation could also review the safeguards the Parliament has in place to protect itself from undue influence more generally, and to overhaul the systems it has for protecting its integrity. We conducted such an assessment in 2014<\/a> but we are unaware of any assessment by Parliament itself of how to deal with corruption risks. Given the prevalent public concern about the documented attempts of authoritarian governments round the world to undermine democratic elections and institutions, and the upcoming European elections, such a review would be very timely. It is important for us to also highlight that conducting such a review is one of the European Parliament\u2019s commitments under the UN Convention Against Corruption, which the European Union ratified in 2008. There has been no progress on this for the past decade, despite calling on the EU numerous times to get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can read the full letter that has been sent to the European Parliament today here.<\/a> Communications Officer <\/p>\n","post_title":"Under the influence: call for an investigation in the European Parliament","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"under-the-influence-call-for-an-investigation-in-the-european-parliament","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2816","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2450,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_content":"A report by Democracy Centre For Transparency (DCT)\u00a0 published a unique report to examine UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver<\/a>. The report concluded that EU has long advocated an approach based on promoting, protecting and respecting human rights\r\nthat was reflected in its domestic as well as foreign policy. This approach has been part of the texts of\r\nagreements that the EU has signed over the years where a phrase regarding observing human rights\r\nhas always been there.\r\n\r\nDCT argued that despite the EU\u2019s commitment to human rights, including having dialogues with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations, the Union has signed agreements with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations such as the UAE for economic and political considerations. The EU needs to affirm its human rights stance by reconsidering agreements signed with other countries that have a record of human rights violations.\r\n\r\nThe UAE has a very negative record to mistreating migrant workers, torturing political prisoners at home\r\nand abroad, suppressing freedom of expression, human trafficking and intervening in other countries\r\ncausing further human rights violations such as in Yemen. The UAE\u2019s involvement in Yemen has led\r\nto documented 87 human rights violations, some of Conclusion which amount to war crimes, which claimed the lives of some 1,000 civilians. The UAE\u2019s intervention in other countries have put an end to or threatened democratic regimes such as in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.\r\n\r\nFor the above-reasons, and in line with the EU-human rights approach, the EU is urged to reconsider\r\nits visa-waiver program with the UAE until it complies by protecting and promoting human rights. By doing so, the EU proves once again that its commitment to human rights is serious and comprehensive.\r\n\r\nThe report offered a set of the following recommendations:\r\n\r\n1. The EU should reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE due to the country\u2019s involvement in\r\nvarious human and financial crimes at home and abroad that resulted in the death of 1,000 civilians\r\nat least.\r\n\r\n2. The EU should establish a monitoring body that monitor the activities of governments that have\r\npartnership agreements with the EU to make sure human rights are protected and respected.\r\n\r\n3. The EU should not separate between its own human rights values and that of its partners as such a\r\nbehavior undermines the credibility of the EU as an advocate of human rights globally.\r\n\r\n4. The UAE should adopt a comprehensive human rights approach that protect the rights of all people\r\nregardless of sex, age, race, religion or social status. Being a business hub does not save the country\r\nthe responsibility over human rights violations.\r\n\r\n5. The EU should make sure that its partners, including the UAE, act according to its general foreign policy outlines, such as the situation in Yemen, where the UAE is accused of committing war crimes.\r\n\r\n6. The EU should re-blacklist the UAE as a haven for tax as the country is heavily involved in tax evasion, where drug trade and modern-day slavery are still practiced.\r\n\r\n7. The EU should make sure the UAE stops human trafficking and modern slavery on its soil or abroad,\r\nespecially in Libya, where thousands of migrants are exploited on their way to the EU via the sea.\r\n\r\n8. The EU should pass legislations that ensure the protection of women rights by partner countries including the UAE, where women still need the approval of their husbands to get a job.\r\n\r\n9. The UAE should give political opposition the platform to express their opinion without fear and\r\nshould release all human rights defenders from jails, where wide-spread torture was reported.\r\n\r\n10.The UAE should release all political prisoners in prisons run by it in Yemen, including prohibiting\r\ntorture at home or outside. The EU should actively be engaged with the UAE to make sure no violations\r\nagainst civilians are committed by the UAE in Yemen.\r\n\r\n11.The EU should conduct visits to construction and prison facilities in the UAE where migrant workers\r\nlive dire conditions and some of them get deported illegally over differences with their employers of\r\nattempting to demand their own rights due to the sponsorship system.\r\n\r\n12. NGOs and civil society in the EU should play a greater role in making sure EU partners don\u2019t commit\r\nviolations or crimes that contradict the values of the EU.","post_title":"New Report: How the United Arab Emirates Disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"An Examination of UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver\r\n","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"new-report-how-the-united-arab-emirates-disqualified-from-eu-visa-waiver","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2450","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"146","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2438,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_content":"The EU has been one of the most prominent defenders and promoters of human rights globally. This EU approach has been reflected by its domestic as well as foreign policy, including by stressing the importance of human rights in its agreements with third parties.\r\n\r\nDespite this EU approach, it has signed a visa-waiver program with the UAE in 2015 despite the long record of the country in human rights violations, including violations against migrant workers, its own nationals, as well as violations in other countries, such as torture and involvement in military activities that claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 civilians.\r\n\r\nThe UAE violations extend to committing financial crimes such as turning Dubai into a tax haven and engaging in money laundry, some of which is used to finance terrorism. In light of this, the EU is urged to reconsider its agreement with the UAE and to terminate the waiver program with the UAE to further assert its commitment to promoting and protecting human rights. This includes assuring protecting women rights, political dissidents, migrant workers, refugees, Europeans, and minorities.\r\n\r\nThe EU is urged to set more transparent means in its dealing with the UAE including its financial dealings. The EU is urged to reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE until it abides by the EY general guidelines in relation to human rights.","post_title":"Why the United Arab Emirates should be disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"On 6 May, 2015 the European Union (EU) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a 90-day visa waiver agreement in Brussels. ","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"democracy-centre-for-transparency-dct-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2438","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"163","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":false,"total_page":1},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_3"};
The story began just over a year ago, when a group of investigative journalists published their discovery of a \u20ac2.5 billion slush fund that was being run out of Azerbaijan. The fund was being used to launder the reputation of Azerbaijan, particularly its woeful human rights record<\/a>, in multiple EU member states and in international institutions such as UNESCO and the Council of Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story contained a number of allegations about the behaviour of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which led to an independent investigation that corroborated many of these claims. The investigation ended with a resolution<\/a> being passed by PACE with a number of recommendations to avoid this happening in the future. This week, three former members of PACE, one Italian and two Azeris, are on trial in Milan. <\/a>They stand accused of corruption to manipulate the Council of Europe. This trial is the only step that has been taken to hold anyone criminally accountable so far, despite numerous accusations of bribery across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PACE has not been the only gathering of Parliamentarians to be targeted by the Azeri regime<\/a>. Members of the European Parliament were also invited to the country by organisations close to the Azeri government. The European Parliament\u2019s Advisory Committee did investigate this and found that seven MEPs were in breach of the Code of Conduct, however, none were sanctioned at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PACE resolution, passed following the investigation, calls upon the European Parliament to also conduct an independent investigation and to draw on its recommendations and improve procedures according to the outcomes and findings. From what we can see this has still not been done and there is no evidence that it is being prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such an investigation could also review the safeguards the Parliament has in place to protect itself from undue influence more generally, and to overhaul the systems it has for protecting its integrity. We conducted such an assessment in 2014<\/a> but we are unaware of any assessment by Parliament itself of how to deal with corruption risks. Given the prevalent public concern about the documented attempts of authoritarian governments round the world to undermine democratic elections and institutions, and the upcoming European elections, such a review would be very timely. It is important for us to also highlight that conducting such a review is one of the European Parliament\u2019s commitments under the UN Convention Against Corruption, which the European Union ratified in 2008. There has been no progress on this for the past decade, despite calling on the EU numerous times to get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can read the full letter that has been sent to the European Parliament today here.<\/a> Communications Officer <\/p>\n","post_title":"Under the influence: call for an investigation in the European Parliament","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"under-the-influence-call-for-an-investigation-in-the-european-parliament","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2816","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2450,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_content":"A report by Democracy Centre For Transparency (DCT)\u00a0 published a unique report to examine UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver<\/a>. The report concluded that EU has long advocated an approach based on promoting, protecting and respecting human rights\r\nthat was reflected in its domestic as well as foreign policy. This approach has been part of the texts of\r\nagreements that the EU has signed over the years where a phrase regarding observing human rights\r\nhas always been there.\r\n\r\nDCT argued that despite the EU\u2019s commitment to human rights, including having dialogues with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations, the Union has signed agreements with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations such as the UAE for economic and political considerations. The EU needs to affirm its human rights stance by reconsidering agreements signed with other countries that have a record of human rights violations.\r\n\r\nThe UAE has a very negative record to mistreating migrant workers, torturing political prisoners at home\r\nand abroad, suppressing freedom of expression, human trafficking and intervening in other countries\r\ncausing further human rights violations such as in Yemen. The UAE\u2019s involvement in Yemen has led\r\nto documented 87 human rights violations, some of Conclusion which amount to war crimes, which claimed the lives of some 1,000 civilians. The UAE\u2019s intervention in other countries have put an end to or threatened democratic regimes such as in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.\r\n\r\nFor the above-reasons, and in line with the EU-human rights approach, the EU is urged to reconsider\r\nits visa-waiver program with the UAE until it complies by protecting and promoting human rights. By doing so, the EU proves once again that its commitment to human rights is serious and comprehensive.\r\n\r\nThe report offered a set of the following recommendations:\r\n\r\n1. The EU should reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE due to the country\u2019s involvement in\r\nvarious human and financial crimes at home and abroad that resulted in the death of 1,000 civilians\r\nat least.\r\n\r\n2. The EU should establish a monitoring body that monitor the activities of governments that have\r\npartnership agreements with the EU to make sure human rights are protected and respected.\r\n\r\n3. The EU should not separate between its own human rights values and that of its partners as such a\r\nbehavior undermines the credibility of the EU as an advocate of human rights globally.\r\n\r\n4. The UAE should adopt a comprehensive human rights approach that protect the rights of all people\r\nregardless of sex, age, race, religion or social status. Being a business hub does not save the country\r\nthe responsibility over human rights violations.\r\n\r\n5. The EU should make sure that its partners, including the UAE, act according to its general foreign policy outlines, such as the situation in Yemen, where the UAE is accused of committing war crimes.\r\n\r\n6. The EU should re-blacklist the UAE as a haven for tax as the country is heavily involved in tax evasion, where drug trade and modern-day slavery are still practiced.\r\n\r\n7. The EU should make sure the UAE stops human trafficking and modern slavery on its soil or abroad,\r\nespecially in Libya, where thousands of migrants are exploited on their way to the EU via the sea.\r\n\r\n8. The EU should pass legislations that ensure the protection of women rights by partner countries including the UAE, where women still need the approval of their husbands to get a job.\r\n\r\n9. The UAE should give political opposition the platform to express their opinion without fear and\r\nshould release all human rights defenders from jails, where wide-spread torture was reported.\r\n\r\n10.The UAE should release all political prisoners in prisons run by it in Yemen, including prohibiting\r\ntorture at home or outside. The EU should actively be engaged with the UAE to make sure no violations\r\nagainst civilians are committed by the UAE in Yemen.\r\n\r\n11.The EU should conduct visits to construction and prison facilities in the UAE where migrant workers\r\nlive dire conditions and some of them get deported illegally over differences with their employers of\r\nattempting to demand their own rights due to the sponsorship system.\r\n\r\n12. NGOs and civil society in the EU should play a greater role in making sure EU partners don\u2019t commit\r\nviolations or crimes that contradict the values of the EU.","post_title":"New Report: How the United Arab Emirates Disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"An Examination of UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver\r\n","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"new-report-how-the-united-arab-emirates-disqualified-from-eu-visa-waiver","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2450","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"146","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2438,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_content":"The EU has been one of the most prominent defenders and promoters of human rights globally. This EU approach has been reflected by its domestic as well as foreign policy, including by stressing the importance of human rights in its agreements with third parties.\r\n\r\nDespite this EU approach, it has signed a visa-waiver program with the UAE in 2015 despite the long record of the country in human rights violations, including violations against migrant workers, its own nationals, as well as violations in other countries, such as torture and involvement in military activities that claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 civilians.\r\n\r\nThe UAE violations extend to committing financial crimes such as turning Dubai into a tax haven and engaging in money laundry, some of which is used to finance terrorism. In light of this, the EU is urged to reconsider its agreement with the UAE and to terminate the waiver program with the UAE to further assert its commitment to promoting and protecting human rights. This includes assuring protecting women rights, political dissidents, migrant workers, refugees, Europeans, and minorities.\r\n\r\nThe EU is urged to set more transparent means in its dealing with the UAE including its financial dealings. The EU is urged to reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE until it abides by the EY general guidelines in relation to human rights.","post_title":"Why the United Arab Emirates should be disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"On 6 May, 2015 the European Union (EU) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a 90-day visa waiver agreement in Brussels. ","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"democracy-centre-for-transparency-dct-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2438","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"163","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":false,"total_page":1},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_3"};
There is however another case of foreign influence that involves European institutions, which has still not been fully investigated. This is the Azerbaijani Laundromat<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story began just over a year ago, when a group of investigative journalists published their discovery of a \u20ac2.5 billion slush fund that was being run out of Azerbaijan. The fund was being used to launder the reputation of Azerbaijan, particularly its woeful human rights record<\/a>, in multiple EU member states and in international institutions such as UNESCO and the Council of Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story contained a number of allegations about the behaviour of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which led to an independent investigation that corroborated many of these claims. The investigation ended with a resolution<\/a> being passed by PACE with a number of recommendations to avoid this happening in the future. This week, three former members of PACE, one Italian and two Azeris, are on trial in Milan. <\/a>They stand accused of corruption to manipulate the Council of Europe. This trial is the only step that has been taken to hold anyone criminally accountable so far, despite numerous accusations of bribery across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PACE has not been the only gathering of Parliamentarians to be targeted by the Azeri regime<\/a>. Members of the European Parliament were also invited to the country by organisations close to the Azeri government. The European Parliament\u2019s Advisory Committee did investigate this and found that seven MEPs were in breach of the Code of Conduct, however, none were sanctioned at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PACE resolution, passed following the investigation, calls upon the European Parliament to also conduct an independent investigation and to draw on its recommendations and improve procedures according to the outcomes and findings. From what we can see this has still not been done and there is no evidence that it is being prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such an investigation could also review the safeguards the Parliament has in place to protect itself from undue influence more generally, and to overhaul the systems it has for protecting its integrity. We conducted such an assessment in 2014<\/a> but we are unaware of any assessment by Parliament itself of how to deal with corruption risks. Given the prevalent public concern about the documented attempts of authoritarian governments round the world to undermine democratic elections and institutions, and the upcoming European elections, such a review would be very timely. It is important for us to also highlight that conducting such a review is one of the European Parliament\u2019s commitments under the UN Convention Against Corruption, which the European Union ratified in 2008. There has been no progress on this for the past decade, despite calling on the EU numerous times to get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can read the full letter that has been sent to the European Parliament today here.<\/a> Communications Officer <\/p>\n","post_title":"Under the influence: call for an investigation in the European Parliament","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"under-the-influence-call-for-an-investigation-in-the-european-parliament","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2816","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2450,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_content":"A report by Democracy Centre For Transparency (DCT)\u00a0 published a unique report to examine UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver<\/a>. The report concluded that EU has long advocated an approach based on promoting, protecting and respecting human rights\r\nthat was reflected in its domestic as well as foreign policy. This approach has been part of the texts of\r\nagreements that the EU has signed over the years where a phrase regarding observing human rights\r\nhas always been there.\r\n\r\nDCT argued that despite the EU\u2019s commitment to human rights, including having dialogues with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations, the Union has signed agreements with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations such as the UAE for economic and political considerations. The EU needs to affirm its human rights stance by reconsidering agreements signed with other countries that have a record of human rights violations.\r\n\r\nThe UAE has a very negative record to mistreating migrant workers, torturing political prisoners at home\r\nand abroad, suppressing freedom of expression, human trafficking and intervening in other countries\r\ncausing further human rights violations such as in Yemen. The UAE\u2019s involvement in Yemen has led\r\nto documented 87 human rights violations, some of Conclusion which amount to war crimes, which claimed the lives of some 1,000 civilians. The UAE\u2019s intervention in other countries have put an end to or threatened democratic regimes such as in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.\r\n\r\nFor the above-reasons, and in line with the EU-human rights approach, the EU is urged to reconsider\r\nits visa-waiver program with the UAE until it complies by protecting and promoting human rights. By doing so, the EU proves once again that its commitment to human rights is serious and comprehensive.\r\n\r\nThe report offered a set of the following recommendations:\r\n\r\n1. The EU should reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE due to the country\u2019s involvement in\r\nvarious human and financial crimes at home and abroad that resulted in the death of 1,000 civilians\r\nat least.\r\n\r\n2. The EU should establish a monitoring body that monitor the activities of governments that have\r\npartnership agreements with the EU to make sure human rights are protected and respected.\r\n\r\n3. The EU should not separate between its own human rights values and that of its partners as such a\r\nbehavior undermines the credibility of the EU as an advocate of human rights globally.\r\n\r\n4. The UAE should adopt a comprehensive human rights approach that protect the rights of all people\r\nregardless of sex, age, race, religion or social status. Being a business hub does not save the country\r\nthe responsibility over human rights violations.\r\n\r\n5. The EU should make sure that its partners, including the UAE, act according to its general foreign policy outlines, such as the situation in Yemen, where the UAE is accused of committing war crimes.\r\n\r\n6. The EU should re-blacklist the UAE as a haven for tax as the country is heavily involved in tax evasion, where drug trade and modern-day slavery are still practiced.\r\n\r\n7. The EU should make sure the UAE stops human trafficking and modern slavery on its soil or abroad,\r\nespecially in Libya, where thousands of migrants are exploited on their way to the EU via the sea.\r\n\r\n8. The EU should pass legislations that ensure the protection of women rights by partner countries including the UAE, where women still need the approval of their husbands to get a job.\r\n\r\n9. The UAE should give political opposition the platform to express their opinion without fear and\r\nshould release all human rights defenders from jails, where wide-spread torture was reported.\r\n\r\n10.The UAE should release all political prisoners in prisons run by it in Yemen, including prohibiting\r\ntorture at home or outside. The EU should actively be engaged with the UAE to make sure no violations\r\nagainst civilians are committed by the UAE in Yemen.\r\n\r\n11.The EU should conduct visits to construction and prison facilities in the UAE where migrant workers\r\nlive dire conditions and some of them get deported illegally over differences with their employers of\r\nattempting to demand their own rights due to the sponsorship system.\r\n\r\n12. NGOs and civil society in the EU should play a greater role in making sure EU partners don\u2019t commit\r\nviolations or crimes that contradict the values of the EU.","post_title":"New Report: How the United Arab Emirates Disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"An Examination of UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver\r\n","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"new-report-how-the-united-arab-emirates-disqualified-from-eu-visa-waiver","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2450","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"146","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2438,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_content":"The EU has been one of the most prominent defenders and promoters of human rights globally. This EU approach has been reflected by its domestic as well as foreign policy, including by stressing the importance of human rights in its agreements with third parties.\r\n\r\nDespite this EU approach, it has signed a visa-waiver program with the UAE in 2015 despite the long record of the country in human rights violations, including violations against migrant workers, its own nationals, as well as violations in other countries, such as torture and involvement in military activities that claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 civilians.\r\n\r\nThe UAE violations extend to committing financial crimes such as turning Dubai into a tax haven and engaging in money laundry, some of which is used to finance terrorism. In light of this, the EU is urged to reconsider its agreement with the UAE and to terminate the waiver program with the UAE to further assert its commitment to promoting and protecting human rights. This includes assuring protecting women rights, political dissidents, migrant workers, refugees, Europeans, and minorities.\r\n\r\nThe EU is urged to set more transparent means in its dealing with the UAE including its financial dealings. The EU is urged to reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE until it abides by the EY general guidelines in relation to human rights.","post_title":"Why the United Arab Emirates should be disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"On 6 May, 2015 the European Union (EU) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a 90-day visa waiver agreement in Brussels. ","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"democracy-centre-for-transparency-dct-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2438","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"163","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":false,"total_page":1},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_3"};
Lucinda Pearson, Transparency EU<\/a> - Authoritarian governments meddling with elections and institutions of liberal democracies has been a major talking point for governments and citizens alike across the globe over the past couple of years. One high-profile case is the investigation of Paul Manafort<\/a>, whose indictment offers a glimpse into a multi-million dollar campaign to lobby the EU on behalf of the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Another is the allegations of Russian influence<\/a> in the Brexit Leave Campaign. Both of these cases have been splashed across our front pages for months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is however another case of foreign influence that involves European institutions, which has still not been fully investigated. This is the Azerbaijani Laundromat<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story began just over a year ago, when a group of investigative journalists published their discovery of a \u20ac2.5 billion slush fund that was being run out of Azerbaijan. The fund was being used to launder the reputation of Azerbaijan, particularly its woeful human rights record<\/a>, in multiple EU member states and in international institutions such as UNESCO and the Council of Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story contained a number of allegations about the behaviour of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which led to an independent investigation that corroborated many of these claims. The investigation ended with a resolution<\/a> being passed by PACE with a number of recommendations to avoid this happening in the future. This week, three former members of PACE, one Italian and two Azeris, are on trial in Milan. <\/a>They stand accused of corruption to manipulate the Council of Europe. This trial is the only step that has been taken to hold anyone criminally accountable so far, despite numerous accusations of bribery across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PACE has not been the only gathering of Parliamentarians to be targeted by the Azeri regime<\/a>. Members of the European Parliament were also invited to the country by organisations close to the Azeri government. The European Parliament\u2019s Advisory Committee did investigate this and found that seven MEPs were in breach of the Code of Conduct, however, none were sanctioned at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PACE resolution, passed following the investigation, calls upon the European Parliament to also conduct an independent investigation and to draw on its recommendations and improve procedures according to the outcomes and findings. From what we can see this has still not been done and there is no evidence that it is being prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such an investigation could also review the safeguards the Parliament has in place to protect itself from undue influence more generally, and to overhaul the systems it has for protecting its integrity. We conducted such an assessment in 2014<\/a> but we are unaware of any assessment by Parliament itself of how to deal with corruption risks. Given the prevalent public concern about the documented attempts of authoritarian governments round the world to undermine democratic elections and institutions, and the upcoming European elections, such a review would be very timely. It is important for us to also highlight that conducting such a review is one of the European Parliament\u2019s commitments under the UN Convention Against Corruption, which the European Union ratified in 2008. There has been no progress on this for the past decade, despite calling on the EU numerous times to get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can read the full letter that has been sent to the European Parliament today here.<\/a> Communications Officer <\/p>\n","post_title":"Under the influence: call for an investigation in the European Parliament","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"under-the-influence-call-for-an-investigation-in-the-european-parliament","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2816","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2450,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_content":"A report by Democracy Centre For Transparency (DCT)\u00a0 published a unique report to examine UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver<\/a>. The report concluded that EU has long advocated an approach based on promoting, protecting and respecting human rights\r\nthat was reflected in its domestic as well as foreign policy. This approach has been part of the texts of\r\nagreements that the EU has signed over the years where a phrase regarding observing human rights\r\nhas always been there.\r\n\r\nDCT argued that despite the EU\u2019s commitment to human rights, including having dialogues with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations, the Union has signed agreements with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations such as the UAE for economic and political considerations. The EU needs to affirm its human rights stance by reconsidering agreements signed with other countries that have a record of human rights violations.\r\n\r\nThe UAE has a very negative record to mistreating migrant workers, torturing political prisoners at home\r\nand abroad, suppressing freedom of expression, human trafficking and intervening in other countries\r\ncausing further human rights violations such as in Yemen. The UAE\u2019s involvement in Yemen has led\r\nto documented 87 human rights violations, some of Conclusion which amount to war crimes, which claimed the lives of some 1,000 civilians. The UAE\u2019s intervention in other countries have put an end to or threatened democratic regimes such as in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.\r\n\r\nFor the above-reasons, and in line with the EU-human rights approach, the EU is urged to reconsider\r\nits visa-waiver program with the UAE until it complies by protecting and promoting human rights. By doing so, the EU proves once again that its commitment to human rights is serious and comprehensive.\r\n\r\nThe report offered a set of the following recommendations:\r\n\r\n1. The EU should reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE due to the country\u2019s involvement in\r\nvarious human and financial crimes at home and abroad that resulted in the death of 1,000 civilians\r\nat least.\r\n\r\n2. The EU should establish a monitoring body that monitor the activities of governments that have\r\npartnership agreements with the EU to make sure human rights are protected and respected.\r\n\r\n3. The EU should not separate between its own human rights values and that of its partners as such a\r\nbehavior undermines the credibility of the EU as an advocate of human rights globally.\r\n\r\n4. The UAE should adopt a comprehensive human rights approach that protect the rights of all people\r\nregardless of sex, age, race, religion or social status. Being a business hub does not save the country\r\nthe responsibility over human rights violations.\r\n\r\n5. The EU should make sure that its partners, including the UAE, act according to its general foreign policy outlines, such as the situation in Yemen, where the UAE is accused of committing war crimes.\r\n\r\n6. The EU should re-blacklist the UAE as a haven for tax as the country is heavily involved in tax evasion, where drug trade and modern-day slavery are still practiced.\r\n\r\n7. The EU should make sure the UAE stops human trafficking and modern slavery on its soil or abroad,\r\nespecially in Libya, where thousands of migrants are exploited on their way to the EU via the sea.\r\n\r\n8. The EU should pass legislations that ensure the protection of women rights by partner countries including the UAE, where women still need the approval of their husbands to get a job.\r\n\r\n9. The UAE should give political opposition the platform to express their opinion without fear and\r\nshould release all human rights defenders from jails, where wide-spread torture was reported.\r\n\r\n10.The UAE should release all political prisoners in prisons run by it in Yemen, including prohibiting\r\ntorture at home or outside. The EU should actively be engaged with the UAE to make sure no violations\r\nagainst civilians are committed by the UAE in Yemen.\r\n\r\n11.The EU should conduct visits to construction and prison facilities in the UAE where migrant workers\r\nlive dire conditions and some of them get deported illegally over differences with their employers of\r\nattempting to demand their own rights due to the sponsorship system.\r\n\r\n12. NGOs and civil society in the EU should play a greater role in making sure EU partners don\u2019t commit\r\nviolations or crimes that contradict the values of the EU.","post_title":"New Report: How the United Arab Emirates Disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"An Examination of UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver\r\n","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"new-report-how-the-united-arab-emirates-disqualified-from-eu-visa-waiver","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2450","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"146","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2438,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_content":"The EU has been one of the most prominent defenders and promoters of human rights globally. This EU approach has been reflected by its domestic as well as foreign policy, including by stressing the importance of human rights in its agreements with third parties.\r\n\r\nDespite this EU approach, it has signed a visa-waiver program with the UAE in 2015 despite the long record of the country in human rights violations, including violations against migrant workers, its own nationals, as well as violations in other countries, such as torture and involvement in military activities that claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 civilians.\r\n\r\nThe UAE violations extend to committing financial crimes such as turning Dubai into a tax haven and engaging in money laundry, some of which is used to finance terrorism. In light of this, the EU is urged to reconsider its agreement with the UAE and to terminate the waiver program with the UAE to further assert its commitment to promoting and protecting human rights. This includes assuring protecting women rights, political dissidents, migrant workers, refugees, Europeans, and minorities.\r\n\r\nThe EU is urged to set more transparent means in its dealing with the UAE including its financial dealings. The EU is urged to reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE until it abides by the EY general guidelines in relation to human rights.","post_title":"Why the United Arab Emirates should be disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"On 6 May, 2015 the European Union (EU) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a 90-day visa waiver agreement in Brussels. ","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"democracy-centre-for-transparency-dct-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2438","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"163","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":false,"total_page":1},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_3"};
ICTSD reporting; \u201cFacebook hit with first fine over Cambridge Analytica data scandal,\u201d FINANCIAL TIMES, 11 July 2018.<\/p>\n","post_title":"EU Parliament Questions US Compliance with Data Privacy Shield, Calls for Suspension","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"eu-parliament-questions-us-compliance-with-data-privacy-shield-calls-for-suspension","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2820","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2816,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-12-27 12:28:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-12-27 12:28:00","post_content":"\n Lucinda Pearson, Transparency EU<\/a> - Authoritarian governments meddling with elections and institutions of liberal democracies has been a major talking point for governments and citizens alike across the globe over the past couple of years. One high-profile case is the investigation of Paul Manafort<\/a>, whose indictment offers a glimpse into a multi-million dollar campaign to lobby the EU on behalf of the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Another is the allegations of Russian influence<\/a> in the Brexit Leave Campaign. Both of these cases have been splashed across our front pages for months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is however another case of foreign influence that involves European institutions, which has still not been fully investigated. This is the Azerbaijani Laundromat<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story began just over a year ago, when a group of investigative journalists published their discovery of a \u20ac2.5 billion slush fund that was being run out of Azerbaijan. The fund was being used to launder the reputation of Azerbaijan, particularly its woeful human rights record<\/a>, in multiple EU member states and in international institutions such as UNESCO and the Council of Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story contained a number of allegations about the behaviour of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which led to an independent investigation that corroborated many of these claims. The investigation ended with a resolution<\/a> being passed by PACE with a number of recommendations to avoid this happening in the future. This week, three former members of PACE, one Italian and two Azeris, are on trial in Milan. <\/a>They stand accused of corruption to manipulate the Council of Europe. This trial is the only step that has been taken to hold anyone criminally accountable so far, despite numerous accusations of bribery across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PACE has not been the only gathering of Parliamentarians to be targeted by the Azeri regime<\/a>. Members of the European Parliament were also invited to the country by organisations close to the Azeri government. The European Parliament\u2019s Advisory Committee did investigate this and found that seven MEPs were in breach of the Code of Conduct, however, none were sanctioned at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PACE resolution, passed following the investigation, calls upon the European Parliament to also conduct an independent investigation and to draw on its recommendations and improve procedures according to the outcomes and findings. From what we can see this has still not been done and there is no evidence that it is being prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such an investigation could also review the safeguards the Parliament has in place to protect itself from undue influence more generally, and to overhaul the systems it has for protecting its integrity. We conducted such an assessment in 2014<\/a> but we are unaware of any assessment by Parliament itself of how to deal with corruption risks. Given the prevalent public concern about the documented attempts of authoritarian governments round the world to undermine democratic elections and institutions, and the upcoming European elections, such a review would be very timely. It is important for us to also highlight that conducting such a review is one of the European Parliament\u2019s commitments under the UN Convention Against Corruption, which the European Union ratified in 2008. There has been no progress on this for the past decade, despite calling on the EU numerous times to get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can read the full letter that has been sent to the European Parliament today here.<\/a> Communications Officer <\/p>\n","post_title":"Under the influence: call for an investigation in the European Parliament","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"under-the-influence-call-for-an-investigation-in-the-european-parliament","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2816","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2450,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_content":"A report by Democracy Centre For Transparency (DCT)\u00a0 published a unique report to examine UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver<\/a>. The report concluded that EU has long advocated an approach based on promoting, protecting and respecting human rights\r\nthat was reflected in its domestic as well as foreign policy. This approach has been part of the texts of\r\nagreements that the EU has signed over the years where a phrase regarding observing human rights\r\nhas always been there.\r\n\r\nDCT argued that despite the EU\u2019s commitment to human rights, including having dialogues with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations, the Union has signed agreements with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations such as the UAE for economic and political considerations. The EU needs to affirm its human rights stance by reconsidering agreements signed with other countries that have a record of human rights violations.\r\n\r\nThe UAE has a very negative record to mistreating migrant workers, torturing political prisoners at home\r\nand abroad, suppressing freedom of expression, human trafficking and intervening in other countries\r\ncausing further human rights violations such as in Yemen. The UAE\u2019s involvement in Yemen has led\r\nto documented 87 human rights violations, some of Conclusion which amount to war crimes, which claimed the lives of some 1,000 civilians. The UAE\u2019s intervention in other countries have put an end to or threatened democratic regimes such as in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.\r\n\r\nFor the above-reasons, and in line with the EU-human rights approach, the EU is urged to reconsider\r\nits visa-waiver program with the UAE until it complies by protecting and promoting human rights. By doing so, the EU proves once again that its commitment to human rights is serious and comprehensive.\r\n\r\nThe report offered a set of the following recommendations:\r\n\r\n1. The EU should reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE due to the country\u2019s involvement in\r\nvarious human and financial crimes at home and abroad that resulted in the death of 1,000 civilians\r\nat least.\r\n\r\n2. The EU should establish a monitoring body that monitor the activities of governments that have\r\npartnership agreements with the EU to make sure human rights are protected and respected.\r\n\r\n3. The EU should not separate between its own human rights values and that of its partners as such a\r\nbehavior undermines the credibility of the EU as an advocate of human rights globally.\r\n\r\n4. The UAE should adopt a comprehensive human rights approach that protect the rights of all people\r\nregardless of sex, age, race, religion or social status. Being a business hub does not save the country\r\nthe responsibility over human rights violations.\r\n\r\n5. The EU should make sure that its partners, including the UAE, act according to its general foreign policy outlines, such as the situation in Yemen, where the UAE is accused of committing war crimes.\r\n\r\n6. The EU should re-blacklist the UAE as a haven for tax as the country is heavily involved in tax evasion, where drug trade and modern-day slavery are still practiced.\r\n\r\n7. The EU should make sure the UAE stops human trafficking and modern slavery on its soil or abroad,\r\nespecially in Libya, where thousands of migrants are exploited on their way to the EU via the sea.\r\n\r\n8. The EU should pass legislations that ensure the protection of women rights by partner countries including the UAE, where women still need the approval of their husbands to get a job.\r\n\r\n9. The UAE should give political opposition the platform to express their opinion without fear and\r\nshould release all human rights defenders from jails, where wide-spread torture was reported.\r\n\r\n10.The UAE should release all political prisoners in prisons run by it in Yemen, including prohibiting\r\ntorture at home or outside. The EU should actively be engaged with the UAE to make sure no violations\r\nagainst civilians are committed by the UAE in Yemen.\r\n\r\n11.The EU should conduct visits to construction and prison facilities in the UAE where migrant workers\r\nlive dire conditions and some of them get deported illegally over differences with their employers of\r\nattempting to demand their own rights due to the sponsorship system.\r\n\r\n12. NGOs and civil society in the EU should play a greater role in making sure EU partners don\u2019t commit\r\nviolations or crimes that contradict the values of the EU.","post_title":"New Report: How the United Arab Emirates Disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"An Examination of UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver\r\n","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"new-report-how-the-united-arab-emirates-disqualified-from-eu-visa-waiver","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2450","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"146","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2438,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_content":"The EU has been one of the most prominent defenders and promoters of human rights globally. This EU approach has been reflected by its domestic as well as foreign policy, including by stressing the importance of human rights in its agreements with third parties.\r\n\r\nDespite this EU approach, it has signed a visa-waiver program with the UAE in 2015 despite the long record of the country in human rights violations, including violations against migrant workers, its own nationals, as well as violations in other countries, such as torture and involvement in military activities that claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 civilians.\r\n\r\nThe UAE violations extend to committing financial crimes such as turning Dubai into a tax haven and engaging in money laundry, some of which is used to finance terrorism. In light of this, the EU is urged to reconsider its agreement with the UAE and to terminate the waiver program with the UAE to further assert its commitment to promoting and protecting human rights. This includes assuring protecting women rights, political dissidents, migrant workers, refugees, Europeans, and minorities.\r\n\r\nThe EU is urged to set more transparent means in its dealing with the UAE including its financial dealings. The EU is urged to reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE until it abides by the EY general guidelines in relation to human rights.","post_title":"Why the United Arab Emirates should be disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"On 6 May, 2015 the European Union (EU) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a 90-day visa waiver agreement in Brussels. ","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"democracy-centre-for-transparency-dct-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2438","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"163","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":false,"total_page":1},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_3"};
The second annual review of the Privacy Shield, led by US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Commissioner Jourov\u00e1, will be held in Brussels in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ICTSD reporting; \u201cFacebook hit with first fine over Cambridge Analytica data scandal,\u201d FINANCIAL TIMES, 11 July 2018.<\/p>\n","post_title":"EU Parliament Questions US Compliance with Data Privacy Shield, Calls for Suspension","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"eu-parliament-questions-us-compliance-with-data-privacy-shield-calls-for-suspension","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2820","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2816,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-12-27 12:28:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-12-27 12:28:00","post_content":"\n Lucinda Pearson, Transparency EU<\/a> - Authoritarian governments meddling with elections and institutions of liberal democracies has been a major talking point for governments and citizens alike across the globe over the past couple of years. One high-profile case is the investigation of Paul Manafort<\/a>, whose indictment offers a glimpse into a multi-million dollar campaign to lobby the EU on behalf of the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Another is the allegations of Russian influence<\/a> in the Brexit Leave Campaign. Both of these cases have been splashed across our front pages for months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is however another case of foreign influence that involves European institutions, which has still not been fully investigated. This is the Azerbaijani Laundromat<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story began just over a year ago, when a group of investigative journalists published their discovery of a \u20ac2.5 billion slush fund that was being run out of Azerbaijan. The fund was being used to launder the reputation of Azerbaijan, particularly its woeful human rights record<\/a>, in multiple EU member states and in international institutions such as UNESCO and the Council of Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story contained a number of allegations about the behaviour of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which led to an independent investigation that corroborated many of these claims. The investigation ended with a resolution<\/a> being passed by PACE with a number of recommendations to avoid this happening in the future. This week, three former members of PACE, one Italian and two Azeris, are on trial in Milan. <\/a>They stand accused of corruption to manipulate the Council of Europe. This trial is the only step that has been taken to hold anyone criminally accountable so far, despite numerous accusations of bribery across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PACE has not been the only gathering of Parliamentarians to be targeted by the Azeri regime<\/a>. Members of the European Parliament were also invited to the country by organisations close to the Azeri government. The European Parliament\u2019s Advisory Committee did investigate this and found that seven MEPs were in breach of the Code of Conduct, however, none were sanctioned at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PACE resolution, passed following the investigation, calls upon the European Parliament to also conduct an independent investigation and to draw on its recommendations and improve procedures according to the outcomes and findings. From what we can see this has still not been done and there is no evidence that it is being prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such an investigation could also review the safeguards the Parliament has in place to protect itself from undue influence more generally, and to overhaul the systems it has for protecting its integrity. We conducted such an assessment in 2014<\/a> but we are unaware of any assessment by Parliament itself of how to deal with corruption risks. Given the prevalent public concern about the documented attempts of authoritarian governments round the world to undermine democratic elections and institutions, and the upcoming European elections, such a review would be very timely. It is important for us to also highlight that conducting such a review is one of the European Parliament\u2019s commitments under the UN Convention Against Corruption, which the European Union ratified in 2008. There has been no progress on this for the past decade, despite calling on the EU numerous times to get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can read the full letter that has been sent to the European Parliament today here.<\/a> Communications Officer <\/p>\n","post_title":"Under the influence: call for an investigation in the European Parliament","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"under-the-influence-call-for-an-investigation-in-the-european-parliament","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2816","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2450,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_content":"A report by Democracy Centre For Transparency (DCT)\u00a0 published a unique report to examine UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver<\/a>. The report concluded that EU has long advocated an approach based on promoting, protecting and respecting human rights\r\nthat was reflected in its domestic as well as foreign policy. This approach has been part of the texts of\r\nagreements that the EU has signed over the years where a phrase regarding observing human rights\r\nhas always been there.\r\n\r\nDCT argued that despite the EU\u2019s commitment to human rights, including having dialogues with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations, the Union has signed agreements with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations such as the UAE for economic and political considerations. The EU needs to affirm its human rights stance by reconsidering agreements signed with other countries that have a record of human rights violations.\r\n\r\nThe UAE has a very negative record to mistreating migrant workers, torturing political prisoners at home\r\nand abroad, suppressing freedom of expression, human trafficking and intervening in other countries\r\ncausing further human rights violations such as in Yemen. The UAE\u2019s involvement in Yemen has led\r\nto documented 87 human rights violations, some of Conclusion which amount to war crimes, which claimed the lives of some 1,000 civilians. The UAE\u2019s intervention in other countries have put an end to or threatened democratic regimes such as in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.\r\n\r\nFor the above-reasons, and in line with the EU-human rights approach, the EU is urged to reconsider\r\nits visa-waiver program with the UAE until it complies by protecting and promoting human rights. By doing so, the EU proves once again that its commitment to human rights is serious and comprehensive.\r\n\r\nThe report offered a set of the following recommendations:\r\n\r\n1. The EU should reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE due to the country\u2019s involvement in\r\nvarious human and financial crimes at home and abroad that resulted in the death of 1,000 civilians\r\nat least.\r\n\r\n2. The EU should establish a monitoring body that monitor the activities of governments that have\r\npartnership agreements with the EU to make sure human rights are protected and respected.\r\n\r\n3. The EU should not separate between its own human rights values and that of its partners as such a\r\nbehavior undermines the credibility of the EU as an advocate of human rights globally.\r\n\r\n4. The UAE should adopt a comprehensive human rights approach that protect the rights of all people\r\nregardless of sex, age, race, religion or social status. Being a business hub does not save the country\r\nthe responsibility over human rights violations.\r\n\r\n5. The EU should make sure that its partners, including the UAE, act according to its general foreign policy outlines, such as the situation in Yemen, where the UAE is accused of committing war crimes.\r\n\r\n6. The EU should re-blacklist the UAE as a haven for tax as the country is heavily involved in tax evasion, where drug trade and modern-day slavery are still practiced.\r\n\r\n7. The EU should make sure the UAE stops human trafficking and modern slavery on its soil or abroad,\r\nespecially in Libya, where thousands of migrants are exploited on their way to the EU via the sea.\r\n\r\n8. The EU should pass legislations that ensure the protection of women rights by partner countries including the UAE, where women still need the approval of their husbands to get a job.\r\n\r\n9. The UAE should give political opposition the platform to express their opinion without fear and\r\nshould release all human rights defenders from jails, where wide-spread torture was reported.\r\n\r\n10.The UAE should release all political prisoners in prisons run by it in Yemen, including prohibiting\r\ntorture at home or outside. The EU should actively be engaged with the UAE to make sure no violations\r\nagainst civilians are committed by the UAE in Yemen.\r\n\r\n11.The EU should conduct visits to construction and prison facilities in the UAE where migrant workers\r\nlive dire conditions and some of them get deported illegally over differences with their employers of\r\nattempting to demand their own rights due to the sponsorship system.\r\n\r\n12. NGOs and civil society in the EU should play a greater role in making sure EU partners don\u2019t commit\r\nviolations or crimes that contradict the values of the EU.","post_title":"New Report: How the United Arab Emirates Disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"An Examination of UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver\r\n","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"new-report-how-the-united-arab-emirates-disqualified-from-eu-visa-waiver","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2450","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"146","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2438,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_content":"The EU has been one of the most prominent defenders and promoters of human rights globally. This EU approach has been reflected by its domestic as well as foreign policy, including by stressing the importance of human rights in its agreements with third parties.\r\n\r\nDespite this EU approach, it has signed a visa-waiver program with the UAE in 2015 despite the long record of the country in human rights violations, including violations against migrant workers, its own nationals, as well as violations in other countries, such as torture and involvement in military activities that claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 civilians.\r\n\r\nThe UAE violations extend to committing financial crimes such as turning Dubai into a tax haven and engaging in money laundry, some of which is used to finance terrorism. In light of this, the EU is urged to reconsider its agreement with the UAE and to terminate the waiver program with the UAE to further assert its commitment to promoting and protecting human rights. This includes assuring protecting women rights, political dissidents, migrant workers, refugees, Europeans, and minorities.\r\n\r\nThe EU is urged to set more transparent means in its dealing with the UAE including its financial dealings. The EU is urged to reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE until it abides by the EY general guidelines in relation to human rights.","post_title":"Why the United Arab Emirates should be disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"On 6 May, 2015 the European Union (EU) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a 90-day visa waiver agreement in Brussels. ","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"democracy-centre-for-transparency-dct-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2438","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"163","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":false,"total_page":1},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_3"};
Various EU lawmakers, however, noted that their concerns still stand, given current events. \u201cIn the wake of data breaches like the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, it is more important than ever to protect our fundamental right to data protection and to ensure consumer trust. The law is clear and, as set out in the GDPR, if the agreement is not adequate, and if the US authorities fail to comply with its terms, then it must be suspended until they do,\u201d Moraes said regarding the parliamentary resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second annual review of the Privacy Shield, led by US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Commissioner Jourov\u00e1, will be held in Brussels in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ICTSD reporting; \u201cFacebook hit with first fine over Cambridge Analytica data scandal,\u201d FINANCIAL TIMES, 11 July 2018.<\/p>\n","post_title":"EU Parliament Questions US Compliance with Data Privacy Shield, Calls for Suspension","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"eu-parliament-questions-us-compliance-with-data-privacy-shield-calls-for-suspension","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2820","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2816,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-12-27 12:28:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-12-27 12:28:00","post_content":"\n Lucinda Pearson, Transparency EU<\/a> - Authoritarian governments meddling with elections and institutions of liberal democracies has been a major talking point for governments and citizens alike across the globe over the past couple of years. One high-profile case is the investigation of Paul Manafort<\/a>, whose indictment offers a glimpse into a multi-million dollar campaign to lobby the EU on behalf of the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Another is the allegations of Russian influence<\/a> in the Brexit Leave Campaign. Both of these cases have been splashed across our front pages for months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is however another case of foreign influence that involves European institutions, which has still not been fully investigated. This is the Azerbaijani Laundromat<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story began just over a year ago, when a group of investigative journalists published their discovery of a \u20ac2.5 billion slush fund that was being run out of Azerbaijan. The fund was being used to launder the reputation of Azerbaijan, particularly its woeful human rights record<\/a>, in multiple EU member states and in international institutions such as UNESCO and the Council of Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story contained a number of allegations about the behaviour of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which led to an independent investigation that corroborated many of these claims. The investigation ended with a resolution<\/a> being passed by PACE with a number of recommendations to avoid this happening in the future. This week, three former members of PACE, one Italian and two Azeris, are on trial in Milan. <\/a>They stand accused of corruption to manipulate the Council of Europe. This trial is the only step that has been taken to hold anyone criminally accountable so far, despite numerous accusations of bribery across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PACE has not been the only gathering of Parliamentarians to be targeted by the Azeri regime<\/a>. Members of the European Parliament were also invited to the country by organisations close to the Azeri government. The European Parliament\u2019s Advisory Committee did investigate this and found that seven MEPs were in breach of the Code of Conduct, however, none were sanctioned at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PACE resolution, passed following the investigation, calls upon the European Parliament to also conduct an independent investigation and to draw on its recommendations and improve procedures according to the outcomes and findings. From what we can see this has still not been done and there is no evidence that it is being prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such an investigation could also review the safeguards the Parliament has in place to protect itself from undue influence more generally, and to overhaul the systems it has for protecting its integrity. We conducted such an assessment in 2014<\/a> but we are unaware of any assessment by Parliament itself of how to deal with corruption risks. Given the prevalent public concern about the documented attempts of authoritarian governments round the world to undermine democratic elections and institutions, and the upcoming European elections, such a review would be very timely. It is important for us to also highlight that conducting such a review is one of the European Parliament\u2019s commitments under the UN Convention Against Corruption, which the European Union ratified in 2008. There has been no progress on this for the past decade, despite calling on the EU numerous times to get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can read the full letter that has been sent to the European Parliament today here.<\/a> Communications Officer <\/p>\n","post_title":"Under the influence: call for an investigation in the European Parliament","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"under-the-influence-call-for-an-investigation-in-the-european-parliament","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2816","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2450,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_content":"A report by Democracy Centre For Transparency (DCT)\u00a0 published a unique report to examine UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver<\/a>. The report concluded that EU has long advocated an approach based on promoting, protecting and respecting human rights\r\nthat was reflected in its domestic as well as foreign policy. This approach has been part of the texts of\r\nagreements that the EU has signed over the years where a phrase regarding observing human rights\r\nhas always been there.\r\n\r\nDCT argued that despite the EU\u2019s commitment to human rights, including having dialogues with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations, the Union has signed agreements with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations such as the UAE for economic and political considerations. The EU needs to affirm its human rights stance by reconsidering agreements signed with other countries that have a record of human rights violations.\r\n\r\nThe UAE has a very negative record to mistreating migrant workers, torturing political prisoners at home\r\nand abroad, suppressing freedom of expression, human trafficking and intervening in other countries\r\ncausing further human rights violations such as in Yemen. The UAE\u2019s involvement in Yemen has led\r\nto documented 87 human rights violations, some of Conclusion which amount to war crimes, which claimed the lives of some 1,000 civilians. The UAE\u2019s intervention in other countries have put an end to or threatened democratic regimes such as in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.\r\n\r\nFor the above-reasons, and in line with the EU-human rights approach, the EU is urged to reconsider\r\nits visa-waiver program with the UAE until it complies by protecting and promoting human rights. By doing so, the EU proves once again that its commitment to human rights is serious and comprehensive.\r\n\r\nThe report offered a set of the following recommendations:\r\n\r\n1. The EU should reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE due to the country\u2019s involvement in\r\nvarious human and financial crimes at home and abroad that resulted in the death of 1,000 civilians\r\nat least.\r\n\r\n2. The EU should establish a monitoring body that monitor the activities of governments that have\r\npartnership agreements with the EU to make sure human rights are protected and respected.\r\n\r\n3. The EU should not separate between its own human rights values and that of its partners as such a\r\nbehavior undermines the credibility of the EU as an advocate of human rights globally.\r\n\r\n4. The UAE should adopt a comprehensive human rights approach that protect the rights of all people\r\nregardless of sex, age, race, religion or social status. Being a business hub does not save the country\r\nthe responsibility over human rights violations.\r\n\r\n5. The EU should make sure that its partners, including the UAE, act according to its general foreign policy outlines, such as the situation in Yemen, where the UAE is accused of committing war crimes.\r\n\r\n6. The EU should re-blacklist the UAE as a haven for tax as the country is heavily involved in tax evasion, where drug trade and modern-day slavery are still practiced.\r\n\r\n7. The EU should make sure the UAE stops human trafficking and modern slavery on its soil or abroad,\r\nespecially in Libya, where thousands of migrants are exploited on their way to the EU via the sea.\r\n\r\n8. The EU should pass legislations that ensure the protection of women rights by partner countries including the UAE, where women still need the approval of their husbands to get a job.\r\n\r\n9. The UAE should give political opposition the platform to express their opinion without fear and\r\nshould release all human rights defenders from jails, where wide-spread torture was reported.\r\n\r\n10.The UAE should release all political prisoners in prisons run by it in Yemen, including prohibiting\r\ntorture at home or outside. The EU should actively be engaged with the UAE to make sure no violations\r\nagainst civilians are committed by the UAE in Yemen.\r\n\r\n11.The EU should conduct visits to construction and prison facilities in the UAE where migrant workers\r\nlive dire conditions and some of them get deported illegally over differences with their employers of\r\nattempting to demand their own rights due to the sponsorship system.\r\n\r\n12. NGOs and civil society in the EU should play a greater role in making sure EU partners don\u2019t commit\r\nviolations or crimes that contradict the values of the EU.","post_title":"New Report: How the United Arab Emirates Disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"An Examination of UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver\r\n","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"new-report-how-the-united-arab-emirates-disqualified-from-eu-visa-waiver","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2450","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"146","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2438,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_content":"The EU has been one of the most prominent defenders and promoters of human rights globally. This EU approach has been reflected by its domestic as well as foreign policy, including by stressing the importance of human rights in its agreements with third parties.\r\n\r\nDespite this EU approach, it has signed a visa-waiver program with the UAE in 2015 despite the long record of the country in human rights violations, including violations against migrant workers, its own nationals, as well as violations in other countries, such as torture and involvement in military activities that claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 civilians.\r\n\r\nThe UAE violations extend to committing financial crimes such as turning Dubai into a tax haven and engaging in money laundry, some of which is used to finance terrorism. In light of this, the EU is urged to reconsider its agreement with the UAE and to terminate the waiver program with the UAE to further assert its commitment to promoting and protecting human rights. This includes assuring protecting women rights, political dissidents, migrant workers, refugees, Europeans, and minorities.\r\n\r\nThe EU is urged to set more transparent means in its dealing with the UAE including its financial dealings. The EU is urged to reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE until it abides by the EY general guidelines in relation to human rights.","post_title":"Why the United Arab Emirates should be disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"On 6 May, 2015 the European Union (EU) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a 90-day visa waiver agreement in Brussels. ","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"democracy-centre-for-transparency-dct-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2438","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"163","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":false,"total_page":1},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_3"};
The Privacy Shield also envisions an annual review process, in line with the GDPR\u2019s requirement for having a periodic review mechanism in place, with set timeframes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Various EU lawmakers, however, noted that their concerns still stand, given current events. \u201cIn the wake of data breaches like the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, it is more important than ever to protect our fundamental right to data protection and to ensure consumer trust. The law is clear and, as set out in the GDPR, if the agreement is not adequate, and if the US authorities fail to comply with its terms, then it must be suspended until they do,\u201d Moraes said regarding the parliamentary resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second annual review of the Privacy Shield, led by US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Commissioner Jourov\u00e1, will be held in Brussels in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ICTSD reporting; \u201cFacebook hit with first fine over Cambridge Analytica data scandal,\u201d FINANCIAL TIMES, 11 July 2018.<\/p>\n","post_title":"EU Parliament Questions US Compliance with Data Privacy Shield, Calls for Suspension","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"eu-parliament-questions-us-compliance-with-data-privacy-shield-calls-for-suspension","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2820","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2816,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-12-27 12:28:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-12-27 12:28:00","post_content":"\n Lucinda Pearson, Transparency EU<\/a> - Authoritarian governments meddling with elections and institutions of liberal democracies has been a major talking point for governments and citizens alike across the globe over the past couple of years. One high-profile case is the investigation of Paul Manafort<\/a>, whose indictment offers a glimpse into a multi-million dollar campaign to lobby the EU on behalf of the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Another is the allegations of Russian influence<\/a> in the Brexit Leave Campaign. Both of these cases have been splashed across our front pages for months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is however another case of foreign influence that involves European institutions, which has still not been fully investigated. This is the Azerbaijani Laundromat<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story began just over a year ago, when a group of investigative journalists published their discovery of a \u20ac2.5 billion slush fund that was being run out of Azerbaijan. The fund was being used to launder the reputation of Azerbaijan, particularly its woeful human rights record<\/a>, in multiple EU member states and in international institutions such as UNESCO and the Council of Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story contained a number of allegations about the behaviour of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which led to an independent investigation that corroborated many of these claims. The investigation ended with a resolution<\/a> being passed by PACE with a number of recommendations to avoid this happening in the future. This week, three former members of PACE, one Italian and two Azeris, are on trial in Milan. <\/a>They stand accused of corruption to manipulate the Council of Europe. This trial is the only step that has been taken to hold anyone criminally accountable so far, despite numerous accusations of bribery across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PACE has not been the only gathering of Parliamentarians to be targeted by the Azeri regime<\/a>. Members of the European Parliament were also invited to the country by organisations close to the Azeri government. The European Parliament\u2019s Advisory Committee did investigate this and found that seven MEPs were in breach of the Code of Conduct, however, none were sanctioned at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PACE resolution, passed following the investigation, calls upon the European Parliament to also conduct an independent investigation and to draw on its recommendations and improve procedures according to the outcomes and findings. From what we can see this has still not been done and there is no evidence that it is being prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such an investigation could also review the safeguards the Parliament has in place to protect itself from undue influence more generally, and to overhaul the systems it has for protecting its integrity. We conducted such an assessment in 2014<\/a> but we are unaware of any assessment by Parliament itself of how to deal with corruption risks. Given the prevalent public concern about the documented attempts of authoritarian governments round the world to undermine democratic elections and institutions, and the upcoming European elections, such a review would be very timely. It is important for us to also highlight that conducting such a review is one of the European Parliament\u2019s commitments under the UN Convention Against Corruption, which the European Union ratified in 2008. There has been no progress on this for the past decade, despite calling on the EU numerous times to get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can read the full letter that has been sent to the European Parliament today here.<\/a> Communications Officer <\/p>\n","post_title":"Under the influence: call for an investigation in the European Parliament","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"under-the-influence-call-for-an-investigation-in-the-european-parliament","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2816","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2450,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_content":"A report by Democracy Centre For Transparency (DCT)\u00a0 published a unique report to examine UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver<\/a>. The report concluded that EU has long advocated an approach based on promoting, protecting and respecting human rights\r\nthat was reflected in its domestic as well as foreign policy. This approach has been part of the texts of\r\nagreements that the EU has signed over the years where a phrase regarding observing human rights\r\nhas always been there.\r\n\r\nDCT argued that despite the EU\u2019s commitment to human rights, including having dialogues with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations, the Union has signed agreements with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations such as the UAE for economic and political considerations. The EU needs to affirm its human rights stance by reconsidering agreements signed with other countries that have a record of human rights violations.\r\n\r\nThe UAE has a very negative record to mistreating migrant workers, torturing political prisoners at home\r\nand abroad, suppressing freedom of expression, human trafficking and intervening in other countries\r\ncausing further human rights violations such as in Yemen. The UAE\u2019s involvement in Yemen has led\r\nto documented 87 human rights violations, some of Conclusion which amount to war crimes, which claimed the lives of some 1,000 civilians. The UAE\u2019s intervention in other countries have put an end to or threatened democratic regimes such as in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.\r\n\r\nFor the above-reasons, and in line with the EU-human rights approach, the EU is urged to reconsider\r\nits visa-waiver program with the UAE until it complies by protecting and promoting human rights. By doing so, the EU proves once again that its commitment to human rights is serious and comprehensive.\r\n\r\nThe report offered a set of the following recommendations:\r\n\r\n1. The EU should reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE due to the country\u2019s involvement in\r\nvarious human and financial crimes at home and abroad that resulted in the death of 1,000 civilians\r\nat least.\r\n\r\n2. The EU should establish a monitoring body that monitor the activities of governments that have\r\npartnership agreements with the EU to make sure human rights are protected and respected.\r\n\r\n3. The EU should not separate between its own human rights values and that of its partners as such a\r\nbehavior undermines the credibility of the EU as an advocate of human rights globally.\r\n\r\n4. The UAE should adopt a comprehensive human rights approach that protect the rights of all people\r\nregardless of sex, age, race, religion or social status. Being a business hub does not save the country\r\nthe responsibility over human rights violations.\r\n\r\n5. The EU should make sure that its partners, including the UAE, act according to its general foreign policy outlines, such as the situation in Yemen, where the UAE is accused of committing war crimes.\r\n\r\n6. The EU should re-blacklist the UAE as a haven for tax as the country is heavily involved in tax evasion, where drug trade and modern-day slavery are still practiced.\r\n\r\n7. The EU should make sure the UAE stops human trafficking and modern slavery on its soil or abroad,\r\nespecially in Libya, where thousands of migrants are exploited on their way to the EU via the sea.\r\n\r\n8. The EU should pass legislations that ensure the protection of women rights by partner countries including the UAE, where women still need the approval of their husbands to get a job.\r\n\r\n9. The UAE should give political opposition the platform to express their opinion without fear and\r\nshould release all human rights defenders from jails, where wide-spread torture was reported.\r\n\r\n10.The UAE should release all political prisoners in prisons run by it in Yemen, including prohibiting\r\ntorture at home or outside. The EU should actively be engaged with the UAE to make sure no violations\r\nagainst civilians are committed by the UAE in Yemen.\r\n\r\n11.The EU should conduct visits to construction and prison facilities in the UAE where migrant workers\r\nlive dire conditions and some of them get deported illegally over differences with their employers of\r\nattempting to demand their own rights due to the sponsorship system.\r\n\r\n12. NGOs and civil society in the EU should play a greater role in making sure EU partners don\u2019t commit\r\nviolations or crimes that contradict the values of the EU.","post_title":"New Report: How the United Arab Emirates Disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"An Examination of UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver\r\n","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"new-report-how-the-united-arab-emirates-disqualified-from-eu-visa-waiver","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2450","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"146","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2438,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_content":"The EU has been one of the most prominent defenders and promoters of human rights globally. This EU approach has been reflected by its domestic as well as foreign policy, including by stressing the importance of human rights in its agreements with third parties.\r\n\r\nDespite this EU approach, it has signed a visa-waiver program with the UAE in 2015 despite the long record of the country in human rights violations, including violations against migrant workers, its own nationals, as well as violations in other countries, such as torture and involvement in military activities that claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 civilians.\r\n\r\nThe UAE violations extend to committing financial crimes such as turning Dubai into a tax haven and engaging in money laundry, some of which is used to finance terrorism. In light of this, the EU is urged to reconsider its agreement with the UAE and to terminate the waiver program with the UAE to further assert its commitment to promoting and protecting human rights. This includes assuring protecting women rights, political dissidents, migrant workers, refugees, Europeans, and minorities.\r\n\r\nThe EU is urged to set more transparent means in its dealing with the UAE including its financial dealings. The EU is urged to reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE until it abides by the EY general guidelines in relation to human rights.","post_title":"Why the United Arab Emirates should be disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"On 6 May, 2015 the European Union (EU) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a 90-day visa waiver agreement in Brussels. ","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"democracy-centre-for-transparency-dct-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2438","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"163","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":false,"total_page":1},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_3"};
\u201cEven though the Privacy Shield predates the entry into application of the EU\u2019s new rules, the General Data Protection Regulation, we negotiated the Shield with the new standards in mind,\u201d said<\/a> Jourov\u00e1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Privacy Shield also envisions an annual review process, in line with the GDPR\u2019s requirement for having a periodic review mechanism in place, with set timeframes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Various EU lawmakers, however, noted that their concerns still stand, given current events. \u201cIn the wake of data breaches like the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, it is more important than ever to protect our fundamental right to data protection and to ensure consumer trust. The law is clear and, as set out in the GDPR, if the agreement is not adequate, and if the US authorities fail to comply with its terms, then it must be suspended until they do,\u201d Moraes said regarding the parliamentary resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second annual review of the Privacy Shield, led by US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Commissioner Jourov\u00e1, will be held in Brussels in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ICTSD reporting; \u201cFacebook hit with first fine over Cambridge Analytica data scandal,\u201d FINANCIAL TIMES, 11 July 2018.<\/p>\n","post_title":"EU Parliament Questions US Compliance with Data Privacy Shield, Calls for Suspension","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"eu-parliament-questions-us-compliance-with-data-privacy-shield-calls-for-suspension","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2820","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2816,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-12-27 12:28:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-12-27 12:28:00","post_content":"\n Lucinda Pearson, Transparency EU<\/a> - Authoritarian governments meddling with elections and institutions of liberal democracies has been a major talking point for governments and citizens alike across the globe over the past couple of years. One high-profile case is the investigation of Paul Manafort<\/a>, whose indictment offers a glimpse into a multi-million dollar campaign to lobby the EU on behalf of the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Another is the allegations of Russian influence<\/a> in the Brexit Leave Campaign. Both of these cases have been splashed across our front pages for months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is however another case of foreign influence that involves European institutions, which has still not been fully investigated. This is the Azerbaijani Laundromat<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story began just over a year ago, when a group of investigative journalists published their discovery of a \u20ac2.5 billion slush fund that was being run out of Azerbaijan. The fund was being used to launder the reputation of Azerbaijan, particularly its woeful human rights record<\/a>, in multiple EU member states and in international institutions such as UNESCO and the Council of Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story contained a number of allegations about the behaviour of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which led to an independent investigation that corroborated many of these claims. The investigation ended with a resolution<\/a> being passed by PACE with a number of recommendations to avoid this happening in the future. This week, three former members of PACE, one Italian and two Azeris, are on trial in Milan. <\/a>They stand accused of corruption to manipulate the Council of Europe. This trial is the only step that has been taken to hold anyone criminally accountable so far, despite numerous accusations of bribery across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PACE has not been the only gathering of Parliamentarians to be targeted by the Azeri regime<\/a>. Members of the European Parliament were also invited to the country by organisations close to the Azeri government. The European Parliament\u2019s Advisory Committee did investigate this and found that seven MEPs were in breach of the Code of Conduct, however, none were sanctioned at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PACE resolution, passed following the investigation, calls upon the European Parliament to also conduct an independent investigation and to draw on its recommendations and improve procedures according to the outcomes and findings. From what we can see this has still not been done and there is no evidence that it is being prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such an investigation could also review the safeguards the Parliament has in place to protect itself from undue influence more generally, and to overhaul the systems it has for protecting its integrity. We conducted such an assessment in 2014<\/a> but we are unaware of any assessment by Parliament itself of how to deal with corruption risks. Given the prevalent public concern about the documented attempts of authoritarian governments round the world to undermine democratic elections and institutions, and the upcoming European elections, such a review would be very timely. It is important for us to also highlight that conducting such a review is one of the European Parliament\u2019s commitments under the UN Convention Against Corruption, which the European Union ratified in 2008. There has been no progress on this for the past decade, despite calling on the EU numerous times to get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can read the full letter that has been sent to the European Parliament today here.<\/a> Communications Officer <\/p>\n","post_title":"Under the influence: call for an investigation in the European Parliament","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"under-the-influence-call-for-an-investigation-in-the-european-parliament","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2816","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2450,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_content":"A report by Democracy Centre For Transparency (DCT)\u00a0 published a unique report to examine UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver<\/a>. The report concluded that EU has long advocated an approach based on promoting, protecting and respecting human rights\r\nthat was reflected in its domestic as well as foreign policy. This approach has been part of the texts of\r\nagreements that the EU has signed over the years where a phrase regarding observing human rights\r\nhas always been there.\r\n\r\nDCT argued that despite the EU\u2019s commitment to human rights, including having dialogues with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations, the Union has signed agreements with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations such as the UAE for economic and political considerations. The EU needs to affirm its human rights stance by reconsidering agreements signed with other countries that have a record of human rights violations.\r\n\r\nThe UAE has a very negative record to mistreating migrant workers, torturing political prisoners at home\r\nand abroad, suppressing freedom of expression, human trafficking and intervening in other countries\r\ncausing further human rights violations such as in Yemen. The UAE\u2019s involvement in Yemen has led\r\nto documented 87 human rights violations, some of Conclusion which amount to war crimes, which claimed the lives of some 1,000 civilians. The UAE\u2019s intervention in other countries have put an end to or threatened democratic regimes such as in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.\r\n\r\nFor the above-reasons, and in line with the EU-human rights approach, the EU is urged to reconsider\r\nits visa-waiver program with the UAE until it complies by protecting and promoting human rights. By doing so, the EU proves once again that its commitment to human rights is serious and comprehensive.\r\n\r\nThe report offered a set of the following recommendations:\r\n\r\n1. The EU should reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE due to the country\u2019s involvement in\r\nvarious human and financial crimes at home and abroad that resulted in the death of 1,000 civilians\r\nat least.\r\n\r\n2. The EU should establish a monitoring body that monitor the activities of governments that have\r\npartnership agreements with the EU to make sure human rights are protected and respected.\r\n\r\n3. The EU should not separate between its own human rights values and that of its partners as such a\r\nbehavior undermines the credibility of the EU as an advocate of human rights globally.\r\n\r\n4. The UAE should adopt a comprehensive human rights approach that protect the rights of all people\r\nregardless of sex, age, race, religion or social status. Being a business hub does not save the country\r\nthe responsibility over human rights violations.\r\n\r\n5. The EU should make sure that its partners, including the UAE, act according to its general foreign policy outlines, such as the situation in Yemen, where the UAE is accused of committing war crimes.\r\n\r\n6. The EU should re-blacklist the UAE as a haven for tax as the country is heavily involved in tax evasion, where drug trade and modern-day slavery are still practiced.\r\n\r\n7. The EU should make sure the UAE stops human trafficking and modern slavery on its soil or abroad,\r\nespecially in Libya, where thousands of migrants are exploited on their way to the EU via the sea.\r\n\r\n8. The EU should pass legislations that ensure the protection of women rights by partner countries including the UAE, where women still need the approval of their husbands to get a job.\r\n\r\n9. The UAE should give political opposition the platform to express their opinion without fear and\r\nshould release all human rights defenders from jails, where wide-spread torture was reported.\r\n\r\n10.The UAE should release all political prisoners in prisons run by it in Yemen, including prohibiting\r\ntorture at home or outside. The EU should actively be engaged with the UAE to make sure no violations\r\nagainst civilians are committed by the UAE in Yemen.\r\n\r\n11.The EU should conduct visits to construction and prison facilities in the UAE where migrant workers\r\nlive dire conditions and some of them get deported illegally over differences with their employers of\r\nattempting to demand their own rights due to the sponsorship system.\r\n\r\n12. NGOs and civil society in the EU should play a greater role in making sure EU partners don\u2019t commit\r\nviolations or crimes that contradict the values of the EU.","post_title":"New Report: How the United Arab Emirates Disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"An Examination of UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver\r\n","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"new-report-how-the-united-arab-emirates-disqualified-from-eu-visa-waiver","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2450","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"146","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2438,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_content":"The EU has been one of the most prominent defenders and promoters of human rights globally. This EU approach has been reflected by its domestic as well as foreign policy, including by stressing the importance of human rights in its agreements with third parties.\r\n\r\nDespite this EU approach, it has signed a visa-waiver program with the UAE in 2015 despite the long record of the country in human rights violations, including violations against migrant workers, its own nationals, as well as violations in other countries, such as torture and involvement in military activities that claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 civilians.\r\n\r\nThe UAE violations extend to committing financial crimes such as turning Dubai into a tax haven and engaging in money laundry, some of which is used to finance terrorism. In light of this, the EU is urged to reconsider its agreement with the UAE and to terminate the waiver program with the UAE to further assert its commitment to promoting and protecting human rights. This includes assuring protecting women rights, political dissidents, migrant workers, refugees, Europeans, and minorities.\r\n\r\nThe EU is urged to set more transparent means in its dealing with the UAE including its financial dealings. The EU is urged to reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE until it abides by the EY general guidelines in relation to human rights.","post_title":"Why the United Arab Emirates should be disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"On 6 May, 2015 the European Union (EU) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a 90-day visa waiver agreement in Brussels. ","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"democracy-centre-for-transparency-dct-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2438","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"163","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":false,"total_page":1},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_3"};
The Privacy Shield is focused specifically on regulating cross-border data exchanges between the EU and the US, with nearly 4000 companies from both sides signed up to the new framework. The GDPR and Privacy Shield are meant to be complementary tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven though the Privacy Shield predates the entry into application of the EU\u2019s new rules, the General Data Protection Regulation, we negotiated the Shield with the new standards in mind,\u201d said<\/a> Jourov\u00e1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Privacy Shield also envisions an annual review process, in line with the GDPR\u2019s requirement for having a periodic review mechanism in place, with set timeframes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Various EU lawmakers, however, noted that their concerns still stand, given current events. \u201cIn the wake of data breaches like the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, it is more important than ever to protect our fundamental right to data protection and to ensure consumer trust. The law is clear and, as set out in the GDPR, if the agreement is not adequate, and if the US authorities fail to comply with its terms, then it must be suspended until they do,\u201d Moraes said regarding the parliamentary resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second annual review of the Privacy Shield, led by US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Commissioner Jourov\u00e1, will be held in Brussels in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ICTSD reporting; \u201cFacebook hit with first fine over Cambridge Analytica data scandal,\u201d FINANCIAL TIMES, 11 July 2018.<\/p>\n","post_title":"EU Parliament Questions US Compliance with Data Privacy Shield, Calls for Suspension","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"eu-parliament-questions-us-compliance-with-data-privacy-shield-calls-for-suspension","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2820","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2816,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-12-27 12:28:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-12-27 12:28:00","post_content":"\n Lucinda Pearson, Transparency EU<\/a> - Authoritarian governments meddling with elections and institutions of liberal democracies has been a major talking point for governments and citizens alike across the globe over the past couple of years. One high-profile case is the investigation of Paul Manafort<\/a>, whose indictment offers a glimpse into a multi-million dollar campaign to lobby the EU on behalf of the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Another is the allegations of Russian influence<\/a> in the Brexit Leave Campaign. Both of these cases have been splashed across our front pages for months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is however another case of foreign influence that involves European institutions, which has still not been fully investigated. This is the Azerbaijani Laundromat<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story began just over a year ago, when a group of investigative journalists published their discovery of a \u20ac2.5 billion slush fund that was being run out of Azerbaijan. The fund was being used to launder the reputation of Azerbaijan, particularly its woeful human rights record<\/a>, in multiple EU member states and in international institutions such as UNESCO and the Council of Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story contained a number of allegations about the behaviour of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which led to an independent investigation that corroborated many of these claims. The investigation ended with a resolution<\/a> being passed by PACE with a number of recommendations to avoid this happening in the future. This week, three former members of PACE, one Italian and two Azeris, are on trial in Milan. <\/a>They stand accused of corruption to manipulate the Council of Europe. This trial is the only step that has been taken to hold anyone criminally accountable so far, despite numerous accusations of bribery across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PACE has not been the only gathering of Parliamentarians to be targeted by the Azeri regime<\/a>. Members of the European Parliament were also invited to the country by organisations close to the Azeri government. The European Parliament\u2019s Advisory Committee did investigate this and found that seven MEPs were in breach of the Code of Conduct, however, none were sanctioned at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PACE resolution, passed following the investigation, calls upon the European Parliament to also conduct an independent investigation and to draw on its recommendations and improve procedures according to the outcomes and findings. From what we can see this has still not been done and there is no evidence that it is being prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such an investigation could also review the safeguards the Parliament has in place to protect itself from undue influence more generally, and to overhaul the systems it has for protecting its integrity. We conducted such an assessment in 2014<\/a> but we are unaware of any assessment by Parliament itself of how to deal with corruption risks. Given the prevalent public concern about the documented attempts of authoritarian governments round the world to undermine democratic elections and institutions, and the upcoming European elections, such a review would be very timely. It is important for us to also highlight that conducting such a review is one of the European Parliament\u2019s commitments under the UN Convention Against Corruption, which the European Union ratified in 2008. There has been no progress on this for the past decade, despite calling on the EU numerous times to get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can read the full letter that has been sent to the European Parliament today here.<\/a> Communications Officer <\/p>\n","post_title":"Under the influence: call for an investigation in the European Parliament","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"under-the-influence-call-for-an-investigation-in-the-european-parliament","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2816","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2450,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-30 19:38:40","post_content":"A report by Democracy Centre For Transparency (DCT)\u00a0 published a unique report to examine UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver<\/a>. The report concluded that EU has long advocated an approach based on promoting, protecting and respecting human rights\r\nthat was reflected in its domestic as well as foreign policy. This approach has been part of the texts of\r\nagreements that the EU has signed over the years where a phrase regarding observing human rights\r\nhas always been there.\r\n\r\nDCT argued that despite the EU\u2019s commitment to human rights, including having dialogues with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations, the Union has signed agreements with countries that have a bad record of human rights violations such as the UAE for economic and political considerations. The EU needs to affirm its human rights stance by reconsidering agreements signed with other countries that have a record of human rights violations.\r\n\r\nThe UAE has a very negative record to mistreating migrant workers, torturing political prisoners at home\r\nand abroad, suppressing freedom of expression, human trafficking and intervening in other countries\r\ncausing further human rights violations such as in Yemen. The UAE\u2019s involvement in Yemen has led\r\nto documented 87 human rights violations, some of Conclusion which amount to war crimes, which claimed the lives of some 1,000 civilians. The UAE\u2019s intervention in other countries have put an end to or threatened democratic regimes such as in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.\r\n\r\nFor the above-reasons, and in line with the EU-human rights approach, the EU is urged to reconsider\r\nits visa-waiver program with the UAE until it complies by protecting and promoting human rights. By doing so, the EU proves once again that its commitment to human rights is serious and comprehensive.\r\n\r\nThe report offered a set of the following recommendations:\r\n\r\n1. The EU should reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE due to the country\u2019s involvement in\r\nvarious human and financial crimes at home and abroad that resulted in the death of 1,000 civilians\r\nat least.\r\n\r\n2. The EU should establish a monitoring body that monitor the activities of governments that have\r\npartnership agreements with the EU to make sure human rights are protected and respected.\r\n\r\n3. The EU should not separate between its own human rights values and that of its partners as such a\r\nbehavior undermines the credibility of the EU as an advocate of human rights globally.\r\n\r\n4. The UAE should adopt a comprehensive human rights approach that protect the rights of all people\r\nregardless of sex, age, race, religion or social status. Being a business hub does not save the country\r\nthe responsibility over human rights violations.\r\n\r\n5. The EU should make sure that its partners, including the UAE, act according to its general foreign policy outlines, such as the situation in Yemen, where the UAE is accused of committing war crimes.\r\n\r\n6. The EU should re-blacklist the UAE as a haven for tax as the country is heavily involved in tax evasion, where drug trade and modern-day slavery are still practiced.\r\n\r\n7. The EU should make sure the UAE stops human trafficking and modern slavery on its soil or abroad,\r\nespecially in Libya, where thousands of migrants are exploited on their way to the EU via the sea.\r\n\r\n8. The EU should pass legislations that ensure the protection of women rights by partner countries including the UAE, where women still need the approval of their husbands to get a job.\r\n\r\n9. The UAE should give political opposition the platform to express their opinion without fear and\r\nshould release all human rights defenders from jails, where wide-spread torture was reported.\r\n\r\n10.The UAE should release all political prisoners in prisons run by it in Yemen, including prohibiting\r\ntorture at home or outside. The EU should actively be engaged with the UAE to make sure no violations\r\nagainst civilians are committed by the UAE in Yemen.\r\n\r\n11.The EU should conduct visits to construction and prison facilities in the UAE where migrant workers\r\nlive dire conditions and some of them get deported illegally over differences with their employers of\r\nattempting to demand their own rights due to the sponsorship system.\r\n\r\n12. NGOs and civil society in the EU should play a greater role in making sure EU partners don\u2019t commit\r\nviolations or crimes that contradict the values of the EU.","post_title":"New Report: How the United Arab Emirates Disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"An Examination of UAE Human Rights Record & the requirements of EU Visa Waiver\r\n","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"new-report-how-the-united-arab-emirates-disqualified-from-eu-visa-waiver","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2450","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"146","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2438,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_date_gmt":"2018-07-24 22:26:12","post_content":"The EU has been one of the most prominent defenders and promoters of human rights globally. This EU approach has been reflected by its domestic as well as foreign policy, including by stressing the importance of human rights in its agreements with third parties.\r\n\r\nDespite this EU approach, it has signed a visa-waiver program with the UAE in 2015 despite the long record of the country in human rights violations, including violations against migrant workers, its own nationals, as well as violations in other countries, such as torture and involvement in military activities that claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 civilians.\r\n\r\nThe UAE violations extend to committing financial crimes such as turning Dubai into a tax haven and engaging in money laundry, some of which is used to finance terrorism. In light of this, the EU is urged to reconsider its agreement with the UAE and to terminate the waiver program with the UAE to further assert its commitment to promoting and protecting human rights. This includes assuring protecting women rights, political dissidents, migrant workers, refugees, Europeans, and minorities.\r\n\r\nThe EU is urged to set more transparent means in its dealing with the UAE including its financial dealings. The EU is urged to reconsider its visa waiver program with the UAE until it abides by the EY general guidelines in relation to human rights.","post_title":"Why the United Arab Emirates should be disqualified from EU Visa Waiver","post_excerpt":"On 6 May, 2015 the European Union (EU) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a 90-day visa waiver agreement in Brussels. ","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"democracy-centre-for-transparency-dct-2","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2438","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"163","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":false,"total_page":1},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_2o3","class":"epic_block_3"};
The discussions on the Privacy Shield come less than two months after the EU\u2019s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) took effect. The GDPR is designed to help govern the use of personal information, giving EU-based individuals a greater say how their data is treated, along with aligning European countries\u2019 approach on data privacy, among other objectives. (See Bridges Weekly, 31 May 2018<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Privacy Shield is focused specifically on regulating cross-border data exchanges between the EU and the US, with nearly 4000 companies from both sides signed up to the new framework. The GDPR and Privacy Shield are meant to be complementary tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven though the Privacy Shield predates the entry into application of the EU\u2019s new rules, the General Data Protection Regulation, we negotiated the Shield with the new standards in mind,\u201d said<\/a> Jourov\u00e1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Privacy Shield also envisions an annual review process, in line with the GDPR\u2019s requirement for having a periodic review mechanism in place, with set timeframes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Various EU lawmakers, however, noted that their concerns still stand, given current events. \u201cIn the wake of data breaches like the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, it is more important than ever to protect our fundamental right to data protection and to ensure consumer trust. The law is clear and, as set out in the GDPR, if the agreement is not adequate, and if the US authorities fail to comply with its terms, then it must be suspended until they do,\u201d Moraes said regarding the parliamentary resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second annual review of the Privacy Shield, led by US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Commissioner Jourov\u00e1, will be held in Brussels in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ICTSD reporting; \u201cFacebook hit with first fine over Cambridge Analytica data scandal,\u201d FINANCIAL TIMES, 11 July 2018.<\/p>\n","post_title":"EU Parliament Questions US Compliance with Data Privacy Shield, Calls for Suspension","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"eu-parliament-questions-us-compliance-with-data-privacy-shield-calls-for-suspension","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_modified_gmt":"2025-02-02 08:39:40","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/dctransparency.com\/?p=2820","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2816,"post_author":"7","post_date":"2018-12-27 12:28:00","post_date_gmt":"2018-12-27 12:28:00","post_content":"\n Lucinda Pearson, Transparency EU<\/a> - Authoritarian governments meddling with elections and institutions of liberal democracies has been a major talking point for governments and citizens alike across the globe over the past couple of years. One high-profile case is the investigation of Paul Manafort<\/a>, whose indictment offers a glimpse into a multi-million dollar campaign to lobby the EU on behalf of the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Another is the allegations of Russian influence<\/a> in the Brexit Leave Campaign. Both of these cases have been splashed across our front pages for months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is however another case of foreign influence that involves European institutions, which has still not been fully investigated. This is the Azerbaijani Laundromat<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story began just over a year ago, when a group of investigative journalists published their discovery of a \u20ac2.5 billion slush fund that was being run out of Azerbaijan. The fund was being used to launder the reputation of Azerbaijan, particularly its woeful human rights record<\/a>, in multiple EU member states and in international institutions such as UNESCO and the Council of Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story contained a number of allegations about the behaviour of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which led to an independent investigation that corroborated many of these claims. The investigation ended with a resolution<\/a> being passed by PACE with a number of recommendations to avoid this happening in the future. This week, three former members of PACE, one Italian and two Azeris, are on trial in Milan. <\/a>They stand accused of corruption to manipulate the Council of Europe. This trial is the only step that has been taken to hold anyone criminally accountable so far, despite numerous accusations of bribery across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PACE has not been the only gathering of Parliamentarians to be targeted by the Azeri regime<\/a>. Members of the European Parliament were also invited to the country by organisations close to the Azeri government. The European Parliament\u2019s Advisory Committee did investigate this and found that seven MEPs were in breach of the Code of Conduct, however, none were sanctioned at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PACE resolution, passed following the investigation, calls upon the European Parliament to also conduct an independent investigation and to draw on its recommendations and improve procedures according to the outcomes and findings. From what we can see this has still not been done and there is no evidence that it is being prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such an investigation could also review the safeguards the Parliament has in place to protect itself from undue influence more generally, and to overhaul the systems it has for protecting its integrity. We conducted such an assessment in 2014<\/a> but we are unaware of any assessment by Parliament itself of how to deal with corruption risks. Given the prevalent public concern about the documented attempts of authoritarian governments round the world to undermine democratic elections and institutions, and the upcoming European elections, such a review would be very timely. It is important for us to also highlight that conducting such a review is one of the European Parliament\u2019s commitments under the UN Convention Against Corruption, which the European Union ratified in 2008. There has been no progress on this for the past decade, despite calling on the EU numerous times to get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
lpearson@transparency.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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