Michel De Maegd was elected to the Belgian Federal Parliament in 2019. Previously, he was a television news presenter for twenty years. During his career as a journalist, he covered several armed conflicts around the world, traveling to Kosovo, Burundi, Bosnia, the DRC and Rwanda. In 1999, he won the Prix Dexia Award for his documentary “Les proies de l’ombre,” following clandestine refugees.
Since his arrival in Parliament, he has been a member of the Foreign Affairs and European Questions committees, and he deals in particular with subjects concerning human rights. In this context, he drafted a resolution on illegal international adoptions, and this text was adopted in 2022. Since then, a vast investigation has been underway in the government to shed light on these events. The conclusions are expected in the coming months, but the first concrete measures are already approved by the government (guarantee of nationality and civil rights for victims, for example).
Following this work, he testified before the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances, leading to the joint statement of September 28, 2021.
