Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-07-Speech-3-163"
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"en.20080507.15.3-163"2
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"Mr President, thank you for a superb report on human rights. It has one very serious fault, however. The world’s biggest human rights problem – the discrimination against 260 million casteless Dalits – is mentioned only briefly, and even then only in connection with a list of things that could give rise to discrimination. In February last year, we approved a far-reaching decision in this matter, and it is therefore alarming that the amendment proposed by the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance was rejected by the Committee on Foreign Affairs. We proposed that, together with the UN, the EU should prepare guidelines to combat caste discrimination and raise the problem at summit meetings with the countries concerned. Have India and the British Government been at it again, as they were against the decision last year, and have they succeeded this time?
The problem exists in many South Asian countries, but I mention India because it is democratic, a fact that was underlined as the most important factor in connection with human rights. It is democratic and it even has good laws against caste discrimination. However, these laws are continually being violated. India’s democracy deserves these laws to be respected, and India should become a model for others. It is, however, also embarrassing that the EU is turning its face away from the suffering of the Dalits – and so is Parliament! We could say these things last year. What has happened, that we cannot say them today? Are things improving for the Dalits? Is the discrimination in the process of disappearing? No, everyone here knows that this is not the case. Why, then, should the desperate situation of these people not receive the active attention of the EU?"@en1
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