Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-06-12-Speech-2-378-000"
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"en.20120612.18.2-378-000"2
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"Madam President, our second topic today, as you said, concerns the Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World in 2011. This report, which, I am pleased to say, is now on the Council website, is set to be adopted in two weeks’ time. I am very happy to present the outline of this report to the House – on time – this year.
In Pakistan, the EU intervened in the case of Mr Behram Khan, who has been on death row since 2003. Following the rejection of several appeals, he was due to be executed on 23 May, but after several EU appeals to the Pakistani authorities, the execution was put off. During my visit last week to Pakistan, I raised the issues of the need to protect and promote the rights of women, to abolish the death penalty and to make good on the promise of legislative changes.
Madam President, the package concerns human rights and democracy. Our election observation missions remain an essential tool to support democracy and accompany political change, as in the case of the historic elections in Tunisia, the creation of a new state in South Sudan, the important parliamentary elections in Algeria – with the first ever EU election observation there – and Peru, where the observation mission contributed to strengthening our bilateral relations, and, of course, many other places across the world.
I want to thank Members of this House for their participation in these missions, adding visibility and enhancing the political commitment of the European Union. On a related note, I am happy to confirm that we are making good progress in preparing the draft statute for the European Endowment for Democracy, including on the basis of the Lambsdorff report.
I hope you will consider the annual report a useful resource. The recent Howitt report expresses expectations that the report should evolve, and I am certainly open to exploring that idea – in cooperation with this House – to make sure that the report continues to be as relevant in the future as it is now.
The annual report shows how the EU really can make a difference when and where it matters most. The report covers 2011 but, if I might, I would like to give some up-to-date figures to illustrate what I mean. Since the beginning of this year, we have made 36 declarations or statements on behalf of human rights defenders or country situations of concern. Of course, that does not include the countless number of
we conduct – for obvious reasons – behind closed doors.
Since January, we have also conducted 14 in-depth human rights discussions with countries around the globe, with another 22 still to come this year. From Jordan to Vietnam, from Ukraine to the United States, from Argentina to Pakistan, the European Union sits down in the spirit of partnership to see how we can, together, improve the human rights situation.
The annual report details all of this action in 2011. But it does more: in line with the wishes of Parliament, the report contains a section on freedom of religion or belief, which is so essential to the development of free societies. 2011 saw worrying developments in this connection, with intolerance spilling over from discrimination into violent attacks.
Also, for the first time, the report contains a section on international humanitarian law, which was the subject of various EU initiatives in 2011, culminating in the seven pledges made in November to the 31st International conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.
As in previous years, the annual report catalogues our work across the whole range of thematic issues, bilateral and multilateral. It encapsulates the tremendous challenges to human rights and democracy in 2011, and how we responded.
Madam President, just a few examples to show that we stay consistently active:
In Bahrain, we have been working since the events of February 2011 to encourage all sides to engage in national reconciliation. I personally expressed support for the independent commission of inquiry and the implementation of its recommendations when I met with his Majesty the King and with the Foreign Minister. We have kept a close eye on the case of Mr al-Khawaja and I have asked my officials to meet him in prison; this took place just before he ended his hunger strike. The EU is also following the fate of Mr Nabeel Rajab, who has just been arrested yet again.
In Mongolia, the EU has been following the situation since the arrest of former President Enkhbayar on corruption charges, his hunger strike and subsequent release. We are determined to support the democratic process in Mongolia ahead of the elections on 28 June."@en1
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