Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-29-Speech-3-092"
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"en.20030129.4.3-092"2
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"Mr President, I am a critical person, and I am very sad to have become afflicted in this period with pessimism regarding the future of our world too. Over and above our high-sounding declarations of principle, human rights are being violated in far too many countries: Chechnya, China, the African countries at war, Israel, the USA with the death penalty and so on and so forth. The blame lies not just with those violating these rights but also with those who see what is happening but do not intervene and genuinely enforce international law. In this sense, governments are often indifferent towards the work of UNHCR and their recommendations go unheeded. Like many of you, I feel indignation when fundamental human rights – the right to life, freedom of thought and movement – are ridden roughshod over in countries professing to be democracies too, and, today, illiberal, death-dealing acts are being carried out in the name of the war against terrorism, although that is not to say that terrorism must not be combated, as in the case of the massacre in Mazar-I-Sharif.
I would like a measure to be taken in March which would make Israel, for example, which is a signatory State, respect, if not the UN resolutions requiring an end to military occupation, at least the Geneva Convention. Collective punishments, the demolition of houses, schools, hospitals, factories and shops, the uprooting of trees, arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial assassinations, vandalism and theft perpetrated by Israeli soldiers, which I personally witnessed in Ramallah, are tragic, daily occurrences in Palestine, like the attacks against civilians in Israel. Three hundred and fifty Palestinian children and 80 Israeli children have been killed in the last two years, innocent victims of our failure to act. We have the means to do so but we often use two different sets of checks and balances: it is our alliances, not our values, which carry most weight. Europe is founded on the principles of democracy and the rule of law. If we are not consistent, first and foremost in the context of European Union affairs, employing all the means available to us, including the suspension of the association agreements with countries which have blatantly violated human rights, how can we be credible as promoters of these rights within the United Nations? We need the provision of enough UNHCR financial and human resources to be able to act more effectively. At the March conference, we must take tangible decisions such as sending a peace-keeping force to protect the civilian population in the occupied territories and refusing to allow Israel to obstruct or even fire on humanitarian missions.
The resolution on which we are going to vote outlines effective, valuable priorities and commitments – such as the operation of the International Criminal Court, human rights monitoring in Iran and the cooperation of the institutions with associations and NGOs from civil society – which will further education and respect in the field of human rights and democracy."@en1
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