Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-16-Speech-3-045"
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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as you know, the European Union played an active role in the 55th session of the Human Rights Commission held in Geneva in March and April 1999. It tabled resolutions on the human rights situation in Iran, Iraq, in the Israeli settlements, in Burma/Myanmar, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Sudan, and negotiated statements to be issued on behalf of the chairman on Colombia and on East Timor.
Lastly, during the next Human Rights Commission there will also be a debate on rationalising the work of the Commission itself. A working party has been set up with the express task of revising the Commission’s mechanisms. This working party has worked hard to reach agreement that it is essential to enhance the effectiveness of the present mechanisms and to make them more rigorous, especially in the financial field. The European Union will oppose any spurious attempt to use this reform of the Human Rights Commission’s activities to limit its capacity for intervention by restricting its sphere of influence and its ongoing monitoring of all human rights issues at world level.
For the first time, the European Union tabled a resolution on the death penalty, which was enormously successful, and led work on a resolution concerning children’s rights, which was a joint initiative with the Latin American group of countries. The Union will continue to play this role at the 56th session of the Human Rights Commission to be held in Geneva in March and April. In particular, as agreed at the Human Rights Council Group on 9 February 2000, the European Union intends to table draft resolutions on the Israeli settlements, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burma/Myanmar, a draft chairman’s statement on Colombia, and, possibly, on East Timor, together with a draft statement on the situation in various countries.
The European Union will continue discussions on preparations for the 56th session of the Human Rights Commission at the next meeting of the Human Rights Group in March. In particular, there will be a discussion of the possibility of tabling a draft resolution on the death penalty. To date, the group has not reached agreement on the strategy to be adopted in this respect, and in particular with regard to formulating a compromise to be tabled in the last resort in case of any amendments to the contrary, including Article 2(7) of the Charter of the United Nations, which refers to sovereignty. We have tried to reach agreement in advance on a compromise text, in view of the difficulties that arose at the 1999 session of the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly, at which the Member States failed to agree on an amendment introducing a reference to Article 2(7) into the draft resolution sponsored by the European Union on the death penalty.
As you know, at the 55th session of the Human Rights Commission held last year, the United States decided, at a very late stage, to table a draft resolution on China. This draft resolution was defeated by a Chinese no-action motion. The European Union voted against that motion. The European Union’s position on the approach to be adopted towards China in the Human Rights Commission was confirmed at the General Affairs Council on 21 March 1999: there was no European Union initiative on China nor was agreement reached to co-sponsor a resolution on China, but an EU vote against the no-action motion. It is by no means certain that the European Union could have maintained a united front if this resolution had been put to the vote.
The United States of America will be tabling a draft resolution on China at the 56th session of the Human Rights Commission and are putting pressure on the European Union to support this draft resolution. This initiative has provoked a strong reaction on China’s part: the Chinese authorities are making representations to the countries and institutions of the European Union, in an attempt to persuade them not to support the United States’ initiative. This initiative is being discussed within the Union, but with no hope of a decision in the near future. It is in the interests of the European Union to keep all its options open for as long as possible, and in any case at least until after the EU-China human rights dialogue meeting is held on 25 February 2000. In view of changes made to the membership of the Human Rights Commission, we estimate the vote on the no-action motion will be close.
It is therefore important this year, too, that the countries of the European Union should reach a consensus on the position to take in any vote on the resolution. In this context it is important to note that the European Union regularly opposes requests by China that the human rights dialogue should automatically rule out tabling a resolution at the Human Rights Commission in Geneva. The European Union unequivocally considers that although it is a very valuable instrument for exchanging views and for taking note of the overall position of the other party, the dialogue should also yield concrete results on the ground, and when this does not happen it may be necessary to present a resolution to the Human Rights Commission, potentially whilst the dialogue is continuing. The European Union also regularly informs China that the Human Rights Commission is the appropriate body for considering human rights issues, and whether or not it agrees with this initiative, this is in any case legitimate from this point of view.
The next human rights dialogue will take place on 25 February in Lisbon, and will include seminars on legal issues and on women’s rights, and it is expected that representatives from the academic world and from civil society will take part. The next human rights seminar will be organised by the Portuguese Presidency in May 2000, and, during the last round of the dialogue in October 1999, the Chinese side accepted the European Union’s proposal for technical assistance to support the process of ratifying the United Nations International Pact on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the United Nations’ International Pact on Civil and Political Rights, both of which have been signed by the Chinese Government.
The European Union is discussing issues on which it hopes that China will take concrete measures, and on the basis of these discussions the presidency will convey to the Chinese authorities the message that the European Union hopes China will announce positive measures at the session on 25 February. The presidency will also present to the Chinese authorities a list of individual cases on which it intends to express its serious concern. The meeting held in Beijing in October 1999 confirmed that, on the one hand, the Chinese authorities were willing to make concessions on issues relating to the dialogue itself, with a restructuring of the dialogue and of discussion of legal forms of repression such as the death penalty and administrative detention. On the other hand, they will not give any ground on the pivotal questions of the single party system and territorial integrity.
Discussions within the European Union about the situation in China following the outcome of the dialogue rounds in 1999 have led the European Union to decide to express its concern about human rights violations in China more firmly; the same applies to the absence of concrete outcomes from the dialogue, while recognising the positive steps that China has made on the international stage. On various occasions the European Union has reiterated to the Chinese authorities its disappointment with the results of the dialogue, and has stressed that it hoped for better outcomes in certain more sensitive areas. It was decided that the dialogue should continue, but in a more targeted and effective way, given that China has agreed with the European Union’s proposal to restructure the dialogue by means of better use of experts and to establish a closer link with the seminars."@en1
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