Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-14-Speech-3-157"
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"en.20040114.3.3-157"2
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"Mr President, the European Parliament is naturally very pleased to see that the Council and the Commission are taking its opinion into account before the Geneva session. During this term, it has expressed several concerns that it hopes will be reflected at the session, and I would just like to mention five of them.
The first is ensuring that human rights are not subject to double standards. A failure to condemn flagrant violations of human rights in major powers such as China – torture, disappearances and the death penalty – Russia – with Chechnya – and the United States – with Guantánamo – would be unacceptable to the public. Large and small must be in the same boat.
The second issue relates to the European Union’s decisions: its votes must reflect the concerns that Parliament has expressed in its annual reports and its resolutions, in particular with regard to strengthening international law as a guarantor of human rights in the world. Parliament has on many occasions highlighted the importance of ensuring that every country adopts the international conventions on the abolition of the death penalty, torture and antipersonnel mines. It has regretted and strongly criticised the pressure the United States has exerted on certain countries to force them not to ratify the Statute of the International Criminal Court. Moreover, it has emphasised specific topics such as violence against women and children in particular, which you mentioned as one of the thematic issues.
The third concern is that condemning terrorism and countries that shelter terrorists must go hand in hand with condemning all of the abuses and violations of human rights perpetrated today in many countries in the name of the fight against terrorism. This fight is certainly important, but it must not flout international law nor infringe upon human rights. This concern of the European Parliament, highlighted in its resolution of January 2003, will be clearly reflected in the 2003 report on human rights in the world, for which I am rapporteur.
The fourth issue, the right to reproductive health, which covers all of the services relating to sexual and reproductive life, was also given priority in that same report. I need not remind you that maternal and infant mortality, epidemics of sexually transmitted diseases and deaths following illegal abortions are the cause of more deaths today than any armed conflict. These tragic and unnecessary deaths continue to be the lot of the Developing World, and Africa in particular. We hope that the Council and the Commission will give a very firm commitment in relation to this right to reproductive health.
Fifthly and finally, the European Parliament welcomes the coordination between the Commission and the Council and hopes that this will continue. As in 2003, it would like an
delegation to be able to attend the next session in Geneva."@en1
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