Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-15-Speech-3-037"
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"en.20030115.3.3-037"2
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"Mr President, I too would like to thank the President-in-Office of the Council and Commissioner Patten for what they have told us today. I too, like other fellow Members, recently went to Afghanistan with a European Parliament delegation and I can bear witness to the truth of the things reported by Commissioner Patten. Let us not forget that we found a country ravaged by 23 years of war and years of drought. The progress made in one year since the first Bonn Conference is truly remarkable, and likewise we should applaud the determination, selflessness and competence of our Commission officials in Kabul. All this is true: schools have been opened, they have started to rebuild some health facilities; valuable work is being done, particularly in terms of supporting the administration. In this connection, I would like to urge Commissioner Patten not to abandon the aspect of specific personnel training, including for customs officers, which is fundamental.
It is also true, however – and the last Bonn Conference showed this to some degree – that the most committed donor countries are asking the Karzai Government to show more determination. There has been some criticism: reforms announced by the Karzai Government itself have been delayed; even though a commission has been appointed to draw up the new Constitution, it is being obstructed by religious issues, by minorities, whereas it needs to go ahead, especially with a specific acknowledgement of women’s rights too; security is still a serious problem; there is no judicial system and there is no national defence force; an operative police force is still lacking. All this is true. The European Union, which has done a great deal, must therefore persevere on these issues.
Lastly – a final word on women’s rights – I would like to refer here, to the European Parliament, to the appeal which the Minister, Mrs Sarabi, made to us: each donor country has chosen a specific area of intervention; however, no one has chosen the specific issue of women’s rights. This is an urgent appeal that I am making to the European Union and to us all lest we forget this: there is no chance of making progress or finding a way out of this situation unless women are directly involved in this process."@en1
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