John Bowis follows human rights issues in his work on the Development Committee. He is also often involved in proposing, drafting and moving resolutions of the European Parliament during Plenary sessions of the Parliament under its “Urgencies” rules.

The European Parliament has the ability to ratify and reject international agreements. Out of its concern to protect human rights, it uses this power to require non-member countries to improve their human rights records and has indeed rejected a whole series of financial protocols with some non-member countries on human rights grounds, forcing those countries to release political prisoners or to accept international commitments to protect human rights.

Please note that resolutions relating to countries of Central Asia are covered under the Central Asia section of this website.