One in three women and girls suffers physical or sexual violence during their lives, said President Sassoli, adding that gender-based violence is a violation of human rights.

Citing violence against women and girls as one of the main obstacles to achieving the Agenda 2030 sustainable development goals, he called for all member states and the European Union to ratify the Istanbul Convention, the first legally binding international instrument to prevent and combat violence against women and girls.

On the 2019 International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the European Parliament building in Strasbourg will be lit up in orange as part of the Orange the World initiative, as a sign of solidarity with all women and girls who have been victims of violence.

You can read President Sassoli’s speech here.

Changes to the agenda

Tuesday

The debate on “Measures to address the impact on European agriculture of the WTO ruling on the Airbus dispute” will be moved to Tuesday afternoon, as the 4th item before the Commission statement on the “crisis of the WTO Appellate Body”. Tuesday’s sitting will be extended until 23:00.

The debate on “Public discrimination and hate speech against LGBTI people, including LGBTI free zones” will be wound up with a resolution, to be put to the vote at the December part-session.

Thursday

The voting session will start at 11.30 and end at 13.30.

The title of the debate on “Imprisonment of human rights defenders and freedom of religion in Algeria” be changed to “Situation of freedoms in Algeria”.

Requests by committees to start negotiations with Council and Commission

Decisions by several committees to enter into inter-institutional negotiations (Rule 71) are published on the plenary website.

If no request for a vote in Parliament on the decision to enter into negotiations is made by midnight on Tuesday, the committees may start negotiations.

Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov was last year’s Sakharov Prize laureate. Until recently, he was serving a 20-year prison sentence in Russia for “plotting terrorist acts” against Russian de facto rule in Crimea. He was released on 7 September following a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine.

The award ceremony in the hemicycle in Strasbourg, at which Mr Sentsov will address Parliament, will take place on Tuesday, 26 November, from 12.00 to 12.30 CET.

You can watch the ceremony via EP Live, and EbS+.

Joint press release

25 November 2019

Between 21-24 November, judicial and law enforcement authorities in Europe launched a joint action against the so-called Islamic State (IS) to disrupt the online activities of this terrorist organisation.

The referral action coordinated by the European Union Internet Referral Unit of Europol, supported by Eurojust, was joined by 12 Member States and 9 online service providers. It led to the referral of a total of over 26 000 items of IS-supporting content. This process is based on the referral by Europol of branded terrorist propaganda to online service providers, which are responsible for evaluating it to establish any potential breach of their terms of service, to ensure that the rule of law is implemented and freedom of speech is safeguarded.

The operation was led by the Belgian Investigating Counter Terrorism Judge and the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office, together with the Belgian Federal Judicial Police of East Flanders.

Within this operation, the Guardia Civil carried out an arrest in Spain of an individual suspected of being part of the core disseminators of IS terrorist propaganda online. This arrest was carried out in coordination with the Central Magistrate’s Investigating Court number 3 and the Prosecutor’s Office of the Audiencia Nacional.

Earlier efforts

This latest action ties in with a series of previous joint efforts aimed at taking down the various communication assets of this terrorist organisation.

In August 2016, a first takedown was launched against Amaq’s mobile application and web infrastructure. This action forced the propagandists to build a more complex and secure infrastructure to prevent further disruption from law enforcement.

In June 2017, a second strike led by the Central Investigating Judge 5 at the Audiencia Nacional with the Guardia Civil and supported by Europol, Eurojust and the USA targeted part of the news agency’s web assets and infrastructure. The servers seized by the Guardia Civil allowed for the identification of radicalised individuals in 133 countries, and the detection of more than 200 million accesses to IS propaganda content by 52 000 possible consumers.

In April 2018, a multinational operation led by the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office, together with the Belgian Federal Judicial Police of East Flanders, and with the support of Europol’s EU IRU, Eurojust and EU Member States, finally took down the web infrastructure of IS, forcing the terrorist propagandists to rely heavily on social media and messaging applications to reach wider audiences online. This shift to online service providers allowed Europol and investigators in Member States to focus their work on the social media networks used by the IS media operatives, resulting in the action days in November 2019.

Europol will continue working towards fostering closer public-private partnerships to ensure the disruption of the dissemination of terrorist online propaganda, and will continue to support law enforcement authorities in EU Member States to address terrorist abuse of the Internet.

Photo © Europol. Ladislav Hamran, President of Eurojust, speaking at the Europol press conference today

Joint press release

25 November 2019

Between 21-24 November, judicial and law enforcement authorities in Europe launched a joint action against the so-called Islamic State (IS) to disrupt the online activities of this terrorist organisation.

The referral action coordinated by the European Union Internet Referral Unit of Europol, supported by Eurojust, was joined by 12 Member States and 9 online service providers. It led to the referral of a total of over 26 000 items of IS-supporting content. This process is based on the referral by Europol of branded terrorist propaganda to online service providers, which are responsible for evaluating it to establish any potential breach of their terms of service, to ensure that the rule of law is implemented and freedom of speech is safeguarded.

The operation was led by the Belgian Investigating Counter Terrorism Judge and the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office, together with the Belgian Federal Judicial Police of East Flanders.

Within this operation, the Guardia Civil carried out an arrest in Spain of an individual suspected of being part of the core disseminators of IS terrorist propaganda online. This arrest was carried out in coordination with the Central Magistrate’s Investigating Court number 3 and the Prosecutor’s Office of the Audiencia Nacional.

Earlier efforts

This latest action ties in with a series of previous joint efforts aimed at taking down the various communication assets of this terrorist organisation.

In August 2016, a first takedown was launched against Amaq’s mobile application and web infrastructure. This action forced the propagandists to build a more complex and secure infrastructure to prevent further disruption from law enforcement.

In June 2017, a second strike led by the Central Investigating Judge 5 at the Audiencia Nacional with the Guardia Civil and supported by Europol, Eurojust and the USA targeted part of the news agency’s web assets and infrastructure. The servers seized by the Guardia Civil allowed for the identification of radicalised individuals in 133 countries, and the detection of more than 200 million accesses to IS propaganda content by 52 000 possible consumers.

In April 2018, a multinational operation led by the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office, together with the Belgian Federal Judicial Police of East Flanders, and with the support of Europol’s EU IRU, Eurojust and EU Member States, finally took down the web infrastructure of IS, forcing the terrorist propagandists to rely heavily on social media and messaging applications to reach wider audiences online. This shift to online service providers allowed Europol and investigators in Member States to focus their work on the social media networks used by the IS media operatives, resulting in the action days in November 2019.

Europol will continue working towards fostering closer public-private partnerships to ensure the disruption of the dissemination of terrorist online propaganda, and will continue to support law enforcement authorities in EU Member States to address terrorist abuse of the Internet.

Photo © Europol. Ladislav Hamran, President of Eurojust, speaking at the Europol press conference today