Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-06-16-Speech-3-412"
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"en.20100616.28.3-412"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: ‘No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’. The prohibition applies in all situations and is an overriding rule of international law and, as such, applies to all states. Not only does the Universal Declaration of Human Rights impose this protection of human rights against torture but so do the United Nations Convention and the European Convention.
The European Union and its Member States take these obligations very seriously. Considering also that we celebrated the International Day against Torture last week, we believe that combating torture constitutes an absolute priority for the European Union. To respect these extremely important legal and moral obligations, we therefore need to impose a close control on the trade in equipment designed to inflict torture or other inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment.
The moment when the regulation was adopted represented a great step forward, as was also confirmed by the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on torture. This regulation also serves as a model in terms of international legislation on the subject. The application of this regulation has not, unfortunately, been as exemplary as its adoption: only seven Member States have submitted one or more of the annual public reports laid down in Article 13 of the regulation, containing detailed information on authorisations granted for the import and export of goods that could be used for torture. These reports constitute an essential element for assessing full compliance with the regulation.
Numerous questions are raised over the final use and destination of the goods when we analyse the authorisations granted. Authorities with responsibility for authorising exports must therefore carry out a more detailed political assessment before proceeding. Neither have many Member States communicated information relating to penalties applicable for infringing the provisions of the Council Regulation, as required in Article 17 of the regulation.
Nearly five years after the adoption of the regulation, the list of goods identified in the Annexes to the regulation must be updated. Man can be very cruel and sometimes it seems that the human imagination for ways of inflicting suffering on others is unlimited. It is therefore of fundamental importance to keep pace with technological developments in this cheerless arena.
For all these reasons, the time has come to table the question to the European Parliament and to call on the European Union and its Member States to show that they are able to keep their promises. As members of the European Parliament, it is our duty, by democratic mandate, to ensure that the institutions work responsibly. This is the reason why we want detailed information on what has been done so far to comply fully with the regulation and also on measures that will enable the situation to be improved in the future.
We welcome, as a first step, the decision of the Committee supervising the application of this regulation at the end of this month. Lest we forget, Council Regulation (EC) No 1236/2005 is not merely fine words but a fundamental and essential instrument that must now be applied in full."@en1
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