Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-04-21-Speech-3-294"
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"en.20040421.12.3-294"2
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".
Mr President, I would like to thank the presidency for allowing me to chip in before them and I would like to apologise to the honourable Member and to the House for the fact that I have to slip away leaving the Commission seat in the capable presence of my colleague, Commissioner Reding. I have to go to Moscow for meetings with President Putin and Mr Lavrov and others. I hope the House will excuse me of any discourtesy.
Lastly, this excellent report highlights the anguish caused by one of the most pernicious causes of unnecessary disability in many countries, that is the use of anti-personnel landmines. Here the Commission is committed to pursuing a vigorous policy to eliminate the threat posed by anti-personnel landmines and increasing its efforts to reduce the humanitarian, social and economic costs to mine-affected countries.
The strategy for mine action in the period 2002-2004 relates EU action to the goals set by the international community in the context of the Ottawa Convention. Assistance for mine clearance and capacity building under the EC budget has been channelled to 33 countries and regions and in 2002 European Union assistance as a whole reached EUR 145 million.
I have been privileged to see the work we are doing in this sector from Sri Lanka to the Balkans. It is enormously important and it is valuable, as are the other points made in this report, that the honourable Member has drawn this matter to the attention of the Parliament and to European public opinion as a whole. We are extremely grateful for the report. I apologise for having to dash to Moscow more rapidly that Napoleon managed and I am grateful to the presidency for making my dash possible.
I would like to start by thanking Mrs De Keyser for her report, which illustrates yet again how the engagement of the European Parliament on human rights issues serves in my judgement as a critical stimulus to EU policy. The Commission will, as usual, respond in writing to all the recommendations addressed to us in this report. I should like, for my part, to reflect on some of the important themes which have been revised.
This subject of human rights and terrorism will unfortunately remain at the top of the international agenda for some time to come. My position on the fight against terrorism is clear. It has been set out several times. I referred to it again a couple of times last night and again this morning. I will reiterate it here. The fight against terrorism must be predicated on respect for human rights, and not the other way around. It is also my deep conviction that this alone is not enough. Fostering human rights should be an integral part of the fight against terrorism. The Commission will continue its efforts to promote and protect human rights in cooperation with our partners with all the means at our disposal: political dialogue, development cooperation and work with civil society in third countries.
Two human rights issues which have received much less attention are covered in this admirable report: the right to health – in this case reproductive health – and the pervasive discrimination which, despite their efforts, people with disabilities still face all over the world, and which is compounded in situations of conflict or poverty.
The ability of all people, especially women, to achieve reproductive health is an integral part of their reproductive rights. The rapporteur is quite right in her account of the dire consequences if the right to reproductive health is denied and also in stating that reproductive health is not a 'women's issue' alone. However, it is important to note that the social consequences of reproductive ill health can be most severely felt by girls. For example, in many parts of Africa, female adolescents are more likely than males to be stigmatised for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, and they are also more likely to suffer disproportionately from such problems as unsafe abortion and infertility.
Since 1994, the Commission has become a major partner in addressing reproductive health needs in developing countries, in the framework of the goals agreed at the UN International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo ten years ago. Between then and 2001, we committed over EUR 655 million in external assistance that was explicitly targeted at family planning, reproductive health, safe motherhood, HIV/AIDS and population policy and management.
Furthermore, in July last year, the Council adopted a regulation on aid for policies and actions on reproductive and sexual health and rights in developing countries. Under this regulation, Community financial support is given to specific operations targeting the poorest and most vulnerable populations in both rural and urban areas, designed to combat practices harmful to the sexual and reproductive health of women, adolescents and children, such as female genital mutilation, sexual violence, child marriages and early marriages.
The European Union has demonstrated its commitment to advancing respect for the human rights of people with disabilities through Community legislation which has been introduced on the basis of Article 13 of the EC Treaty to combat discrimination in the field of employment, initiatives pursued as part of follow-up to last year's European Year of Disabled People and through its active engagement on a new UN Convention in this area.
The Commission has further undertaken a number of initiatives as part of our wider efforts to mainstream human rights in all aspects of our development cooperation, including the distribution of specific policy guidance on development and disability for the use of our delegations. But there is still some way to go. We think the best way of addressing this is through the provision of training for our staff and facilitating exchanges between representatives of disabled people's organisations and policy-makers, by raising awareness of disability issues in our dialogue with developing countries, and by including organisations for people with disabilities in the dialogue at country level."@en1
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