Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-14-Speech-3-155"
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"en.20040114.3.3-155"2
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".
Mr President, the Commission welcomes this opportunity to exchange views with Parliament on the forthcoming session of the UN Commission on Human Rights. I subscribe wholeheartedly to the statement that has just been made by Minister Roche. We need to fully guarantee the coherence between respect for human rights internally in the European Union and the central role that human rights play in our own external policy. The Commission would like to contribute to this debate on the basis of some of its specific points of view.
As Mr Roche just mentioned, the Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations is no stranger to controversy. In the statement on the CHR preparations delivered on behalf of the Commission to Parliament last year, Commissioner Nielson noted that Eleanor Roosevelt, the first Chairman of the CHR in 1946, would be turning in her grave at the election of a Libyan Chair. To that sorry saga we must now add the African Group’s provocative indication that they will request a vote, and vote against, the Western Group’s nominated candidate for Chair – Australian Ambassador Mike Smith – which can only serve to embitter the atmosphere in Geneva ahead of the 60th session. Even by the standards of an increasingly politicised CHR – a body which saw fit to reject last year’s EU resolutions on Zimbabwe, Chechnya and Sudan – this is an unprecedented move. The Commission supports the swift efforts of the Irish presidency to mobilise a concerted EU and Western Group response, with a series of démarches in African and Asian capitals.
A final decision on the European Union’s country and thematic initiatives has not yet been taken and consultations continue between the Council Working Group on Human Rights and geographical working groups. As the European Parliament’s Annual Report on Human Rights noted last year, the European Union is one of the most active players at the Commission on Human Rights. The EU cannot carry that burden alone, and the search for goodwill and burden-sharing with members of the Western and other groups is vital. The EU must make best use of the revitalisation of the United States' interest in both the General Assembly Third Committee and the Commission on Human Rights.
Whilst acknowledging that EU and US views diverge sharply on several issues, the successful cooperation on the resolution on Turkmenistan last year shows that playing to the strengths of our relationship with the United States can pay dividends. Cooperation with Latin American countries – not least on the omnibus resolution on the rights of the child – stands as a good example of partnership with other groups.
Moreover, Brazil’s courageous, and inevitably controversial, decision to table a resolution on sexual orientation – an issue which will be re-visited this year – also demonstrates the value of encouraging important human rights initiatives from other players.
The potential success or failure of draft resolutions cannot, of course, constitute the primary factor in decisions on EU action. The very act of tabling a resolution sends a strong signal of concern and the situation of human rights on the ground must be a pivotal consideration.
That said, in rejecting entirely justified resolutions, the Commission on Human Rights is falling far short of fulfilling its mandate to promote and protect human rights. Such resolutions do not only stand as a mark of the international community’s preoccupation with a particular country’s human rights record; they provide the basis for the work of country and thematic rapporteurs, charged with the investigation of human rights concerns. It is a mark of the lightness with which certain members of the Commission on Human Rights carry their responsibility to the institution that 35 of the 53 state members have failed to extend a standing invitation to those rapporteurs and other visiting mechanisms. We must make every endeavour in our dialogue and cooperation with such countries to prompt a more acceptable approach.
That is entirely in line with the EU’s determination to draw on the work of the Commission on Human Rights as an important element of our relations with third countries, to ensure that the approach we take throughout the year is consistent with what goes on in international human rights fora and to ensure that the mainstreaming of human rights in external relations is a meaningful process.
The Commission therefore welcomes this debate. We consider it an important contribution to the building-up of the EU position in the forthcoming session. I shall conclude by underlining the Commission’s intention to extend every assistance to the Irish presidency during what will undoubtedly be a challenging year for the EU in the Commission on Human Rights."@en1
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