Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-24-Speech-3-092"
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"en.20020424.4.3-092"2
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"Mr President, I shall concentrate mainly on the report by Mr Van Hecke who, I think, has, to his credit, focused on a small number of issues.
The report concerns modern slavery and threats and violence on the part of terrorist groups. Slavery is on the increase throughout the world, including in Europe. Slavery is not a thing of the past. It is based upon a view of human beings that is as out of keeping with our civilisation and Christian culture as it can possibly be. It is based on the very opposite of the idea of people’s equal, unique and inviolable worth.
The UN’s children’s fund, UNICEF has raised the alarm about the fact that 200 000 children in West Africa are victims of trafficking, with the cocoa industry responsible for a significant proportion of this. There is also evidence that child labour and trafficking in human beings are on the increase. It is mostly boys who work on the cocoa plantations of West Africa and often have to do the heavy work of harvesting the cocoa beans. The working day for these children is up to fifteen hours long. It is not only a question of child labour, but children are also sold as slaves by one cocoa producer to another. The Council, the Commission and the EU Member States must take action, and vigorous action at that.
Mention should also be made of the trafficking in women and children that is taking place more and more in Europe. The countries most affected are Romania, Moldavia and the Czech Republic. Such trafficking is a great tragedy for those affected, who are exploited in a horrible way, above all within prostitution. The UN protocol on trafficking in human beings, added to the UN Convention Against Organised Transnational Crime, is an important tool in this area. The Member States and the candidate countries must now translate their words into genuine action in order to put an end to this loathsome trade.
National governments, police and judicial systems appear passive, powerless and resigned faced with the task of tackling these fundamental issues of human dignity in depth and combating the sex trade and trafficking in human beings in similar detail. Such resignation is dangerous for democracy itself. People demand vigorous and determined efforts when it comes to solving these problems.
Allow me also to emphasise paragraphs 52, 53, 54 and 55 of Mr Van Hecke’s report, which are about religious freedom. I find it completely incomprehensible that converting from Islam to Christianity, Buddhism or other religions is punishable by the death penalty in most Arabic and Muslim countries. That is not consonant with human dignity."@en1
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