Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-27-Speech-3-015"
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"en.20050427.7.3-015"2
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"Mr President, I would like to begin by congratulating Mr Coveney on this excellent report. As he has just said, it presents a very broad and very full picture of the human rights situation viewed from a number of angles.
I would also like to strongly emphasise the support we give to human rights organisations in a number of countries, as you also do in your report. It is unacceptable that European Union funds devoted or allocated to human rights organisations in some countries should be blocked by their governments; I believe the President of Parliament brought this home forcefully when visiting one of those countries.
I would also like to say a word about a subject that is close to our hearts: respect for human rights in the fight against terrorism. This is first of all a moral question and then one of effectiveness. Those who think they can weaken respect for human rights on the pretext of fighting terrorism are in a sense giving way to the terrible blackmail of the worst enemies of democracy, the terrorists. We cannot go down that road. The attacks of 11 September 2001 have indeed made terrorism one of the European Union’s priorities, but we have said, and we said it again recently before the Human Rights Commission in Geneva, that the efforts made to fight against terrorism must respect human rights and fundamental freedoms. Moreover, on 21 September 2001 the Council stated that the fight against terrorism should be inseparable from the respect for fundamental freedoms on which our civilisation is based. At the recent session of the Human Rights Commission in Geneva, the European Union played an active part in negotiations on this subject, contributing to the adoption of a resolution on respect for human rights in the fight against terrorism. That resolution provides for the appointment of a special rapporteur and will therefore help to strengthen the protection of human rights in the fight against terrorism. The cooperation, to which you refer in your report, between the Personal Representative on Human Rights recently appointed by the Council's Secretary-General/High Representative for the CFSP and the EU’s Counter-Terrorism Coordinator is entirely consistent with our policy in the matter and we are keen to develop it.
I would like to mention some other questions to which you attach great importance. First, the rights of the child. We always speak of the rights of man, but we should as a matter of priority pay attention to the often calamitous situation of the child victims of conflict and also of poverty. I believe the European Union has a special part to play here, and we shall have to see how we can step up our activities in support of children’s rights. In this connection, I would also like to point out that the draft Constitution makes explicit reference to the protection of children’s rights. I believe we should extend our activities to this end, at the level of our development aid and in the context of the Millennium Development Goals.
There is also the question of the rights of women who are the victims of conflicts, and that of strengthening the European Union’s action to prevent all forms of trafficking in human beings, of which women and children are generally the main victims. This is an area where the European Union needs to step up its action.
I would also like to take this opportunity to underline the freedom of information and the right to information. Your Parliament has done a lot to encourage this right. Journalists are often imprisoned, tortured, harassed in all kinds of ways and, today, taken hostage. This is a good time to spare a thought for those journalists who have been held hostage in Iraq for more than 100 days.
Another issue you raise in your report is the future Fundamental Freedoms Agency and the risk of duplication resulting from the large number of bodies concerned with human rights. We decided back in 2003 that the mandate of the European Monitoring Centre for Racism and Xenophobia should be reviewed and that we should consider making it into an agency. The Commission then embarked on a large-scale public consultation. The very large number of individuals and organisations that expressed their ideas on the future role of the Monitoring Centre and its conversion into an agency for fundamental freedoms and human rights clearly shows the extent to which citizens feel they are affected by human rights issues. We can only welcome that. Following this consultation, the Commission began to draft a proposal for a regulation based on the many ideas received. The proposal will then be examined according to the normal procedure.
While it is therefore premature to discuss this agency here, I would nevertheless like to stress that, given the scale of the task, there will never be too many of us concerned with protecting and defending human rights. We are aware of the problems and we intend to strengthen cooperation between the various bodies concerned. Our aim is to strengthen all the instruments and all the bodies that serve human rights, working together and in coordination so that our action will be effective while avoiding any duplication, since that would be an irresponsible waste of our resources.
More than ever, human rights are at the heart of the international debate. The sixty-first session of the United Nations Commission for Human Rights has just concluded in Geneva. In March, the United Nations Secretary-General published his report entitled: ‘In larger freedom: towards development, security and human rights for all’. He has therefore in a way put the question of human rights at the centre of our concerns for the peaceful development of our world.
You do a similar thing in your report. You paint a picture of the human rights situation in the world, an uncompromising picture which shows that we must continue to be concerned about human rights. It also calls for even more decisive, even more committed action in defence of human rights.
The European Union has always been keen to defend and promote human rights; it is a key part of our external policy. In the light of the challenges of globalisation and in view also of the ongoing deterioration in respect for human rights in many parts of the world, the European Union needs to make greater efforts to promote and defend human rights, first of all internally with the governments, but also with civil society, non-governmental organisations, national parliaments and international bodies.
Something else that must be at the very heart of our defence of human rights is a commitment to resolving conflicts, conflicts which are often the very source of contempt for the human person. You condemn a number of cases in your report, with your tragic review of human rights violations in many parts of the world. In this connection, I believe the UN Secretary-General’s report, reform of the United Nations system, the prominence given to human rights with a link between UN reform and greater respect for the Charter and the Declaration on Human Rights are very important.
May I simply say that the European Union is first of all a community of values, a community of values, incidentally, which is better rooted in the draft Constitution, especially through the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This community of values that we aspire to be requires us to defend the principles of democracy and respect for human rights in the world. These values are and must be our guide in choosing between the tools we have available for conducting our policy.
You will understand, Mr Coveney, that I cannot reply in detail to all the issues raised in your report or to all the extremely useful and extremely rich headings it contains. I will therefore confine myself to a few of the questions you raise, while assuring you, on the Council’s behalf, that our services will continue to study this document and take account of the many suggestions you make there.
I will therefore highlight a number of aspects whose importance justifies dwelling on them more particularly, beginning with dialogue. We try to raise the issue of human rights wherever we have the opportunity and with all our negotiating partners. That is also why human rights are always an integral part of every agreement we conclude with partners, even if they are mainly economic agreements. We have in that way begun a ‘human rights’ dialogue with China, making clear that human rights are not a luxury of rich developed countries but something that must go hand in hand with economic development. We have also started ‘human rights’ consultations with Russia. This is one aspect of the ‘four common spaces’ approach that we are hoping to capitalise on at the next summit with Russia on 10 May. At this very moment, too, an EU troïka is discussing ways of resuming the human rights dialogue with Iran. Human rights are also an integral part of our relations with Teheran on other important matters: respect for human rights cannot in fact be separated from the other fundamental questions on which we are working.
This is long-term work, we know. Even if it is difficult, not to say impossible, to quantify the results gained from these human rights dialogues, we believe they are an essential tool for advancing the cause of human rights in the different countries concerned. The need to find common ground with our negotiating partners obviously does not mean that we need not make regular appraisals of those dialogues. Our aim is to improve the situation on the ground, and definite results like respect for the rule of law or the release of political prisoners are signs that we are having success with such dialogues."@en1
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