Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-09-10-Speech-1-093-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20120910.23.1-093-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, given the EU’s well-publicised commitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of law, the fact of highly credible allegations of complicity and CIA abduction, disappearance, rendition and torture after 9/11 is already bad enough, but the continuing refusal to investigate properly is compounding the original failings. Delays and deliberate obstructions to independent and transparent national inquiries are an affront to liberty and justice. It is a travesty to claim state secrecy in order to perpetuate impunity.
The EU, without being obstructed by the niceties, must have the guts and self-respect to enforce accountability for its own Members’ involvement in human rights abuses. We have just appointed our first human rights chief in Stavros Lambrinidis, but the EU’s credibility in urging respect for fundamental rights throughout the world is badly undermined by the justified suspicion that some of our Member States rode roughshod over international law and civil liberties, so we must clean house in order to advocate and promote the values that we espouse in our external partnerships.
This is not only principled but necessary. Look at the situation in Libya. People allegedly subject to rendition and torture with the collusion of Western governments and intelligence services are now senior in the post-Gaddafi administration. Tony Blair has a hell of a lot to answer for. So, of course, does George Bush, the instigator, with his advisers, of the dismal decade of Guantánamo legal black holes and torture.
The Democrat presidents have not sufficiently respected the law either. President Obama has disappointed in his failure to close Guantánamo or shine a light on the past, and in his persistence with unfair military commissions, which could impose the death penalty, as well as his practice of assassinations by drone strikes.
I firmly believe the truth will eventually out, even if it takes decades, but justice delayed is justice denied. The Council and Commission must join Parliament in forcing some light to be shed on this terrible period, for example, by supporting the UN special rapporteurs."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples