Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-05-Speech-3-341"
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"en.20070905.24.3-341"2
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"Madam President, today a group of Yezidi Kurds demonstrated outside this House, and I joined them, along with Mrs Uca and others. This demonstration, by representatives of a group both dogged by terrorism and threatened with genocide, was another illustration of the incredible hope placed in this House with regard to human rights issues. This is why it is important that our human rights work is carried out systematically and sustainably, and that it avoids making certain mistakes.
The first serious mistake is to make a distinction between large and small countries where human rights is concerned, coming down hard on small countries and yielding to large ones with whom we share important economic and strategic interests. This is something that is done by many of our governments of all political orientations, but that this report avoids. In particular, the report very bravely addresses the subjects of China and Russia, and I am obliged to Mrs Merkel for stating in very clear language on her latest visit to China and a visit some time ago to Russia that it is possible to both pursue interests and in spite of this, or because of it, to raise the subject of human rights in clear terms.
The second mistake we must not make is the following. An Austrian writer, Gerd-Klaus Kaltenbrunner, once said that there are two types of oppressed community and individual victim: one with and one without sex appeal. One is in the limelight for a while, and the other is ignored. Human rights must apply to all, whether or not they are the focus of particular international attention at that time.
The third mistake we must avoid – and this too is vital – is introducing party politics into this issue. That is why I regret the speech by Mr Meijer, whom I otherwise hold in high esteem. Try asking Mr Kelam or Mr Landsbergis, who were under the threat of Soviet persecution, who it was who argued their case back then, in the 1980s: whether it was our group or Mr Meijer’s. Imbalance and the tendency to abuse human rights for party political ends are found everywhere. We should avoid this course in favour of that taken in Mrs Valenciano’s excellent report, and create a human rights policy that applies objective standards and crosses the group divide, and is worthy of the great human rights tradition of this House."@en1
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