Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-16-Speech-3-121"
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"en.20000216.8.3-121"2
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"Mr President, I would like to start with the fact that if words could solve the problems we could all pack up and go home. But unfortunately, as we speak today in the safety of this Chamber, human rights abuses are occurring throughout the free world. Sometimes the more we speak, the less we hear – motions: words; conventions: words; treaties: words – if we are not careful, words themselves become a substitute for real action. Words framed in inclusive and liberating documents become treaties and conventions which are often paraded as a testimony to a country's respect for and adherence to human rights.
Yet words spoken, written or signed are not in themselves enough. Look at the signatories to the conventions on human rights and minorities and then compare the treatment received by such minorities, groups and individuals – the list is shameful and shaming.
Can anyone argue with any persuasiveness that women are treated equally and fairly, that children have human rights or that people are not discriminated against because of their religion, belief, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, opinion, political affiliation etc? The defamation of minorities in newspapers and other media fuels discrimination. Even within the EU citizens still suffer human rights violations and a breach of our conventions. Every day in the press misinformation and misrepresentation are used to deny some minorities equality before the law and to denigrate ethnic minorities. Quite frankly a hierarchy of oppression has been created. And so long as people do not have equality before the law, this inequality will lead to discrimination and human rights will be eroded.
In our enlargement process in the EU we have rightly placed the emphasis on human rights and the protection of minorities. We must not waiver in that commitment. But we must also hold up the mirror to ourselves and recognise our own inadequacies. Yes, conventions have been signed, but action is needed. I would recommend to you ongoing audits of human rights practices, eternal vigilance, not just outside our borders but within. That is why I would welcome an annual Member State report from each individual state which would have to record any charges against it and the action taken. Because what happens in each Member State happens to every single one of us. What happens in another part of the world affects us. Pinochet in Chile is as relevant as Haider in Austria. Human rights and civil liberties are inextricably linked. Human rights do not exist in isolation, they are connected to our development policies, our economic policies, our home affairs policies, indeed they are at the very heart of our democratic functions. I would repeat what Mr Patten said: we must engage, we must inform, educate and thereby effect real and lasting change."@en1
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