Debate during the European Youth Event 2016 in Strasbourg - "Human rights - Heroes of our time". Statements by Denis MUKWEGE Congolese Gynaecologist,&nbsp;Sakharov Prize Winner 2014 and with Ensaf HAIDAR, President of the Raif Badawi Foundation for Freedom

debate

respect for human rights in the world (T)

LUNACEK, Ulrike (Greens/EFA, AT)

Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought 2014 (T)

Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought 2015 (T)

MUKWEGE, Denis

European Youth Event 2016 (T)

HAIDAR, Ensaf (SA)

Human rights - Heroes of our time: extracts from the EYE debate with Denis MUKWEGE, Gynaecologist, Panzi Hospital, Sakharov Prize Winner 2014,and with Ensaf HAIDAR, President of the Raif Badawi Foundation for Freedom

SOUNDBITE (English), Ulrike LUNACEK (Greens/EFA, AT), VIce-President of the EP, <p>I am glad to be able to invite you, or having invited you now to the panel that I will be chairing here, to the topic of Human Rights heroes of our time.</p>

SOUNDBITE (Arabic), Ensaf HAIDAR, Wife of 2015 Sakharov Prize laureate Raif BADAWI, My husband Raif BADAWI is determined and convinced that we will be able to bring about peaceful change in Saudi Arabia.We will be able to make the right to freedom of expression, the right to free speech, a human right that everyone across the planet can enjoy.

SOUNDBITE (French), Denis MUKWEGE, 2014 Sakharov Prize laureate, I thought this was the barbarianism of war, but this lasted for a very long time. Then I noticed for the first time that a child that was born of rape, whose mother I had treated because she had been raped, then the child of this woman who had been raped and was born of rape, was at the age of 8, the child, had been herself been raped at the age of 8. And I was shocked, I thought, this is the second generation of women being raped, I can't wait for the third generation of young women to come to the hospital after being raped.

SOUNDBITE (French), Denis MUKWEGE, 2014 Sakharov Prize laureate, I decided to leave after that. But 3 months later something else happened, that women in Congo got mobilized, women that haven't even got 1 dollar to live on per day. They wrote to the President of the Republic of Congo, they wrote to the Secretary General of the UN, they demanded that I should return to Congo as a doctor, and I said no I can't come back, it is frankly too dangerous for me. But when they started selling fruits and vegetables to pay for my return ticket back to Congo, I couldn't not go.

SOUNDBITE (French), Denis MUKWEGE, 2014 Sakharov Prize laureate, The war in the Democratic Republic of Congo is not between tribes, between states, between religious fanatics, it is a war for an abusive exploitation of the minerals which you have in your telephones, in your laptops, it is illegal mining of these minerals. And over the years we have demanded a regulation of the exploitation of these minerals.

SOUNDBITE (English), Joseph from London, Hello my name is Joseph I am from London, how do you cope with being afraid, because when you are doing the stuff that you are doing you are obviously in personal danger.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic), Ensaf HAIDAR, Wife of 2015 Sakharov Prize laureate Raif BADAWI, Raif reamins convinced that what he is doing is right, and that conviction helps him I think to deal effectively with the fear which would have otherwise have been a problem.

SOUNDBITE (French), Denis MUKWEGE, 2014 Sakharov Prize laureate, When I hear people say you have to leave you can't stay in this dangerous situation, when you have 3-4 people phone every day warning you that you are in danger, you receive post envelopes with powder and you have no idea what it is, you are constantly subjected to threats, but when you weigh in the balance your fear, and the suffering of these women who come in with horrific injuries, when you see babies raped at the age of 12 months, whose bodies have been destroyed, whose perineum has been ripped open, then when you weigh the courage of these women to come back to life against your own fear, you feel very small.

SOUNDBITE (English), Angela from Austria, I am Angela from Austria, and I was wondering, in your opinion, what can we as individuals or in an organisation, what can we do in Europe to support Human Rights?

SOUNDBITE (French), Denis MUKWEGE, 2014 Sakharov Prize laureate, If everone faced up to their own responsibility in their own country, call up your members of parliament, write to them to say we want this rape of women in Congo to stop, we want to be able to do something about it. We want them to be brought to court. Your voice can make a difference.