Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-15-Speech-3-024"
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"en.20000315.2.3-024"2
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"Mr President, it has now been 50 years since we adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. After the horrors of the Second World War, many surely felt a strong sense of hope for a better world and a more humane future. Unfortunately, these hopes have, in many respects, been dashed. A large proportion of the world's population is still living under oppression, with many deprived of their basic rights. We read daily of gross violations of human rights on grounds of gender, religion, ethnic origin, political views, sexual orientation etc.
Allow me to conclude by saying that the reports that will be discussed after mine show that there are also violations of human rights within the EU. Obviously we need to deal with this. If we want to be credible internally, we also need to have a sound policy externally.
The European Community was formed in order to prevent the atrocities of the Second World War from occurring again. The EC became more than just an economic union; it became an important common value-system based precisely on the respect for human rights. Both internal work and foreign policy rest on this principle. The European Parliament has always considered the promotion of these rights to be one of its most important tasks. This work has become even more important as time has gone by. No one can fail to appreciate the commitment found, for example, in this House.
In many respects, the EU has a good policy on human rights but, unfortunately, it is much too ‘straggly’ and incoherent. The EU is therefore in desperate need of a coordinated, strategic and consistent policy in this area. The Council's report that came out in October last year was a good first step. This was a welcome report which Parliament had waited many years for, and which we hope to see more of. It is important, but it contains several deficiencies and needs to be supplemented. In my opinion some of these deficiencies are linked to structural barriers and precisely this lack of a common strategy within the EU in the area of human rights. We need increased coordination, not just between the institutions of the EU, but also between the EU and the Member States.
Human rights must be integrated into the EU's activities naturally: in aid, in trade, in economic, cultural and political cooperation. We need a consistent policy that is credible and predictable. The EU must speak with one voice and give consistent signals to the countries that violate human rights. There must be no doubt about what the EU stands for. Certain basic rights are universal. Violations of these can therefore never be excused on grounds of religion, culture or tradition. Serious violations, which are specified in international conventions cannot – must not – be treated as internal matters. Therefore, I want to encourage the Council to draw up a strategy for improving the work and making it better defined and hopefully more successful. A few suggestions that may be included in such a strategy are, for example, that the Council could develop its own human rights indicators that could be used in connection with trade agreements. These clauses can be used constructively, but they need to be more closely defined with respect to application, implementation and sanctions.
We could also form an advisory group containing representatives from the different EU institutions. They could meet on a regular basis to discuss the promotion of human rights in the short and long term. There ought to be experts in the EU's delegations in third countries. We must work more systematically to collect and evaluate data, information and background material. We need an early warning system for violations of human rights. We also need a web site where we can present the work being done with regard to human rights, showing, for example, who is doing what and what results have been achieved. The web site could also contain links to different organisations.
I would also like to say a few words about women's rights, an issue that I have chosen as a special theme in the report. The Commission declared 1999 to be the year for combating violence against women. It was a praiseworthy initiative, but the campaign was discreet to say the least. We need long-term work, not occasional campaigns. Women's rights are being systematically violated throughout the world. Reports abound on violence in the home, rapes, ritual violence and maltreatment in prisons. During the 1990s, rape was used systematically as an act of war in many armed conflicts. This can now be a matter for examination in the International Criminal Court. Rape is at present the world's most common crime of violence.
Reports from the UN claim that, every year, more women die from the effects of violence in the home than as a result of traffic accidents, malaria, cancer or war put together. The trade in women and children is increasing at an alarming rate. In certain countries, the governments are employing a pure apartheid policy against women. Thousands of young women suffer genital mutilation every day.
Violence against women is a global issue which needs to be high on the international agenda and which must assume a central place in EU policy making, particularly in relations with offending countries. The issue must be dealt with in diplomatic relations and raised with the candidate countries in the course of the negotiations relating to the enlargement of the EU.
The countries of the EU must ratify the report of the proceedings of the International Criminal Court as soon as possible so that it can start work. The EU can play an important part when it comes to encouraging countries to ratify different international conventions for the protection of human rights."@en1
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