A cross-party international coalition of 682 parliamentarians and policymakers from 36 countries today issued a statement decrying Beijing’s “unilateral introduction of national security legislation in Hong Kong”, and calling for sympathetic governments to unite against this “flagrant breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration”. Led by the former Governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten, and the former UK Foreign Secretary, Sir
In October 2019, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty, Philip Alston, made the following statement: “citizens are becoming ever more visible to their governments, but not the other way around.” Federica Donati set out to analyze the Prime Minister’s Question Time (PMQs) from 2010 to 2020 because it is deemed to be a way of subjecting
This morning, the Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe elected Senator Roberto Rampi as general rapporteur on the Report on “Freedom of Media, Public Trust and the People’s Right to Know“. The draft resolution, which will be redacted and examined within the Committee, will then be brought before the Strasbourg
Speaking by remote in the House of Commons on Tuesday 12 May, Peter Bone, conservative MP for Wellingborough and Rushdensaid, criticized the Government saying that “this is not how our parliamentary democracy works.” After congratulating the Prime Minister on doing a good job in the face of adversities, Mr Bone quickly turned against the Government explaining why the message communicated
What follows is a contribution by Armando Armas, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Venezuelan National Assembly and Honorary Member of the Global Committee for the Rule of Law “Marco Pannella”, published by La Patilla, on China’s interests in Venezuela and the key role of knowledge and information in particular during the COVID19 crisis. MPs of the Standing
While highly sceptic on Beijing’s official narrative and the WHO’s public applauding of the PCC’s handling of the crisis – as when its Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus commended China for “setting a new standard for outbreak control” and praised the country’s top leadership for its “openness to sharing information” with the WHO and other countries on January 28 after
One of the most alarming, and indeed depressing sights of the last week was that of various unsavoury beefy men carrying automatic weapons and storming Michigan’s Capitol building in protest at the measures the governor has sensibly introduced to prevent the coronavirus spreading. Why were they carrying such weapons? As a European, I cannot understand the American mentality that is
IN MEMORY OF LI WENLIANG AND ALL SILENCED HEROES. NOW IS THE TIME TO CLAIM OUR CITIZEN’S RIGHT TO KNOW! SIGN HERE. Never like in this moment, where the whole of humanity is facing the same pandemic, has the need for the right to know as a fundamental civil and political right been so clear. A fundamental right suppressed for decades
The events of the past months make it painstakingly clear how much the lack of a political and civil right to know has a direct and devastating impact on the life of citizens all around the world. From the secret plan of the Italian government in January – kept hidden from the public in order not to induce a panic,
What follows is an article published in The Hill on 24 April by Jianli Yang, honorary member of the Global Committee for the Rule of Law “Marco Pannella”, founder and president of Citizen Power Initiatives for China, and Aaron Rhodes, President of the Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe. On April 18, Beijing intensified its crackdown on the people of Hong Kong