Press room 

Joint statement by FEMM and DROI Chairs:

All of the EP’s 20 standing committees and two subcommittees held their constitutive meetings on Wednesday to elect their chair and vice-chairs.

Members of the EP’s Subcommittee on Human Rights held a debate on Friday with invited experts on the human rights situation in the United States after the death of George Floyd.

Experts and MEPs voiced concerns over the numerous violations of human rights in Eastern Ukraine including Crimea during a special hearing organised on Thursday by the Human Rights Subcommittee in association with the Delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee.

Belarusian political prisoners Ales Bialatski, Eduard Lobau and Mykola Statkevich, US spying whistleblower Edward Snowden and Pakistani campaigner for girls' education Malala Yousafzai are the shortlisted finalists for this year's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The laureate will be announced on 10 October, and the €50,000 prize will be awarded in Strasbourg on 20 November.

Seven nominees for the European Parliament’s 2014 Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought, chosen by political groups and groups of MEPs, will be presented at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Development committees and the Human Rights Subcommittee on 23 September, at 16:15.

Ukrainian movement EuroMaidan, Congolese gynaecologist Denis Mukwege and Azerbaijani human rights activist Leyla Yunus are the three finalists for this year's European Parliament Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, as voted jointly on Tuesday by the Foreign Affairs and Development committees.

Dr Denis Mukwege, the 2014 Sakharov Prize laureate, described political problems in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and his difficulties in tackling the problem of sexual abuse of women and even small children, in a Human Rights Subcommittee debate on Thursday. MEPs discussed how the EU could best support Dr Mukwege’s work, and some called for legally-binding rules on trade in conflict minerals.