Open Day in the EP 2015 - Presentation by Ulrike LUNACEK (Greens/EFA, AT), Vice-president of the Sakharov Prize network anf by Denis MUKWEGE and Hauwa IBRAHIM, Sakharov Prize laureates - Festival of Europe - 9 May 2015 - Open Doors Days of the European Institutions, in the EP in Brussels. Statements by Lila PIETERS, Unicef Brussels Director, Denis MUKWEGE, Sakharov Prize laureate, Ulrike LUNACEK (Greens/EFA, AT) and Hauwa IBRAHIM, Sakharov Prize laureate

Brussels

statement

Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought 2005 (T)

LUNACEK, Ulrike (Greens/EFA, AT)

IBRAHIM, Hauwa (CU)

Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought 2014 (T)

MUKWEGE, Denis

Open Day 2015 (T)

Open Day in the EP 2015 - Presentation by Ulrike LUNACEK (Greens/EFA, AT), Vice-president of the Sakharov Prize network and by Denis MUKWEGE and Hauwa IBRAHIM, Sakharov Prize laureates

SOUNDBITE (French), Lila PIETERS, Unicef Brussels Director, Today, over 33 million girls are not at school, they are not attending school.

SOUNDBITE (French), Lila PIETERS, Unicef Brussels Director, It is very important that we support girls education because we are seeing things going backwards. A lot of progress had been made in DRC, in ensuring that girls were going to school and now we see things going backwards. So we're moving very far away to access to education and equality between boys and girls.

SOUNDBITE (French), Denis MUKWEGE, Sakharov Prize laureate, Today if Europe adopts a law which ensures that conflict minerals can no longer get to Europe, because you can also have clean minerals and if you buy clean minerals you're not enriching the gangs and the criminals, you are giving food to local populations, you are giving them decent jobs and this population will no longer want to come to Europe, because they will have work, they will only come here on holidays, just as you go on holiday to Africa.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ulrike LUNACEK (Greens/EFA, AT), We're working just right now, which will be on the agenda of the Strasbourg plenary on the 19th of May, which is the EU regulation on conflict minerals, which would be extremely important to have a very strong regulation here, which would mean that all the supply chain and importers of the raw materials, meaning those we need for cell phones and others, these sort of minerals that are taken out of the ground in conflict areas because if that is not done, then wars will continue to be fought over the resources and will have the effects that we all know about.   

SOUNDBITE (English), Hauwa IBRAHIM, Sakharov Prize laureate, <p>Our politicians, our government steal, they steal with compulsion, they steal without dignity, they steal and they kill. And they bring their money to europe. And you give them visas, and the come and enjoy them. How can you play our part and help us. Is blocking that hole of allowing them to spend their money? Would that be an option? We can think through it. If they are not given the opportunity t spend it, to enjoy it, maybe they will not steal.</p>

SOUNDBITE (English), Hauwa IBRAHIM, Sakharov Prize laureate, Corruption, we have to reduce it and demand that we, the civil society, can demand with our voices, with our actions, for transparency, for accountability and for enforcement of the rule of law.

SOUNDBITE (French), Denis MUKWEGE, Sakharov Prize laureate, (On the importance of an Open Day of the EU institutions) We are all connected, and so we need to generate possibilities where we can exchange, the European people can come to its parliament to ask questions freely. I think it's a unique opportunity because I think that there are many things in the end that can get a faster solution if the information flows in a easy way.

SOUNDBITE (French), Denis MUKWEGE, Sakharov Prize laureate, The Sakharov prize was good. I think that the prize itself was something good because it brought a certain visibility to the problem of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo. What is a pity is that this prize was not announced by Congo. And and I said this is the responsibility of the people who've made this decision.

SOUNDBITE (French), Denis MUKWEGE, Sakharov Prize laureate, If the sociaty can function without half of its members, this society can only fail. And today, it is as if the women were not only excluded, but were also targeted. They are intentionally destroyed in a structured manner. I think that something like that will never allow a society to succeed.  

SOUNDBITE (French), Denis MUKWEGE, Sakharov Prize laureate, The challenge today is to manage to give women autonomy, and we cannot do so without firstly giving women their dignity back. If we don't give them the possibility to have access to opportunities and if in the end we do not allow them to be an integral acting part of the society, we are in danger.  