Continued investment in human rights is needed", stress DROI MEPs after a two-day visit to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva. The head of the DROI Delegation, MEP Andrzej GRZYB (EPP, PL), acknowledged that the year marking the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is an important moment to reflect on all the invaluable work done in the field of human rights.

In light of Senator Leila De Lima's first year of detention, MEP Soraya Post, who headed the Human Rights Subcommittee delegation to the Philippines in July 2017, made a statement on 24 February: "February 24 2018 will mark Senator Leila De Lima's first year of detention at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Manila, where she remains to this day without due judicial process to prove her supposed crimes".

Alarmed by this new attack on freedom of expression in Bahrain, the Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), Mr Pier Antonio Panzeri, made the following statement: "Shortly after the seventh anniversary of the 14 February 2011 protest movement calling for democratic reform and respect for human rights in Bahrain, the new sentence handed down to Nabeel Rajab is further proof of the ongoing crackdown against civil society and dissidents in Bahrain."

In light of recent developments in Sudan, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Heidi Hautala and the Chair of the Human Rights Subcommittee, Pier Antonio Panzeri stated:

"We strongly condemn the arbitrary arrest by Sudanese forces of Salih Mahmoud Osman, Sakharov Prize Laureate and Vice President of the Darfur Bar Association, as well as arrests of other human rights defenders in Sudan..."

Shocked by the recent attack against a Save the Children office, the Chair of the EP's Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), Mr Pier Antonio Panzeri, made the following statement:

"I express my strongest condemnation of this attack on the Save the Children office in Jalalabad. I am very saddened by this brutal attack which targets an organisation committed to improving the lives and well-being of children in Afghanistan and around the world."

Alarmed by the recent death sentence pronounced against Hamed bin Haydara, the Chair of the EP's Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), Mr Pier Antonio Panzeri, made the following statement:

"On 2 January 2018, a rebel-controlled criminal court in Sanaa sentenced the Baha'i prisoner Hamid bin Haydara to death for allegedly collaborating with Israel and forging official documents. His execution, the date of which is unknown, is to be carried out in public. The sentence is the result of a fundamentally flawed process. I therefore call on the responsible Houthi leaders to make sure that Mr. Haydara's death sentence is repealed and that he and the other Baha'i prisoners are released."

Welcoming Professor Merera Gudina's release, the Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), Mr Pier Antonio Panzeri, made the following statement:

"I am delighted about the release of Prof Merera Gudina, chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), because his arrest had been particularly shocking for the European Parliament. In fact, Professor Merera Gudina had been arrested almost immediately after attending a meeting in the European Parliament on 9 November 2016 where the human rights situation in Ethiopia was discussed.."