Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-16-Speech-3-115"

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"Mr President, one of the saving features of this Parliament is that here we practise a consistent and active human rights policy: the flag flies high, as Mrs Malmström put it. At the same time, however, we shut our eyes to the Union’s own problems: to the violence, inequality, and fourth world reality, which is part of everyday life in the EU. It is absolutely right that we pay serious attention to the violations of human rights that are to be the subject of talks in Geneva. The rhetoric that we use, however, often smacks of smugness, verging on the sort of narcissism we associate with human rights attitudes in North America. It is nothing less than hypocritical to condemn the flagrant violation of human rights that occurs in non-EU countries if we are not prepared to extend a helping hand to those genuine refugees and asylum-seekers, whose position is now becoming more difficult in the EU. Let us, in particular, focus attention on the re-admission clauses, which present a threat to the Geneva Convention and which should be blocked. Unless we can maintain high standards of human rights with respect to refugees and asylum-seekers, we are not worthy of those European values which make up the European identity, as Vaclav Havel said here today, and among which he particularly mentioned respect for human rights and solidarity. I worked for many years on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and it was really moving to see how a nation in such difficult circumstances was reaching out for a more open, European-style, pluralistic democratic society. I fear that we are now moving in the opposite direction, towards European exclusiveness and apartheid."@en1

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