Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-09-Speech-2-231"
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"en.20040309.8.2-231"2
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".
Mr President, I would like to begin by congratulating the honourable Member on his report. It touches on an issue which is central to our concerns in the European Union, namely the protection of fundamental human rights. No-one in this Chamber doubts the vital importance of the fight against international terrorism, nor will or should any of us ever forget the horrible tragedy which we saw on our television screens when those planes crashed into the twin towers in New York on 11 September 2001. But we all understand the essential need to combat this evil in a way which strengthens the cause of freedom and human rights. The terrorists win if we lose sight of this fact.
We all stand four-square in the fight against the evil of terrorism and the lethal combination of terrorism and technology. But we also, I believe, stand four-square in our belief that the best way of fighting terrorism is to retain a proper respect for human rights.
The United States, as the honourable Member pointed out, detained several hundred men during and after the fighting in Afghanistan and some have been detained for as long as two years or slightly more. Some of them are nationals of our Member States but wherever they came from they need to be treated fairly and humanely, as the report says. We welcomed the release of a number of detainees recently and we look forward to the release of more in the future.
The European Union has been a staunch and committed member of the international coalition against terrorism. However, as the European Union has repeatedly underlined at both the sessions of the UN Commission on Human Rights and the UN General Assembly Third Committee, it is imperative that we and our allies uphold the values of international human rights and humanitarian law when fighting terrorism. The forthcoming session of the Commission on Human Rights will provide a further opportunity to tackle the issue of human rights and terrorism, and to build on the endorsement by the Third Committee of the proposal that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights should examine the protection of human rights when fighting terrorism.
I need to make it clear – and I do so without in any way suggesting a lack of interest in this problem which rightly is of considerable concern to many Members of the House – that the European Commission does not have competence in a number of the areas which are raised in this report. In the absence of a common position on this question, it is for individual Member States to make diplomatic representation on behalf of their nationals. Equally, the question of the agenda for the US Summit is a matter for the presidency and for the United States. However, I am sure that the Council will take note of this report and of the strong feelings of many honourable Members on this subject.
The House is very keen to have answers to a number of questions. Are these men to be tried and if so for what crimes and under what jurisdiction? Are some of them to be released to the jurisdiction of their own countries, and if so, will guarantees be sought and obtained for their humane treatment? There are many more questions which are raised by this case and are touched on in the report.
I want to make this clear: to ask these questions is not to question for one moment our strong partnership with our friends and partners in the United States in the fight against terrorism – terrorism which has a global reach. But one of our most potent weapons against this evil is our unshakeable commitment to the principle of freedom under the law.
We as Europeans must avoid the danger of raising these issues in a confrontational way which ignores the trauma which the people of the United States have suffered. That is why I welcome the fact that the honourable Member has raised this subject in his report in such a careful and measured way and I am glad to have had the opportunity to respond to him today.
It is crucial that we always try to keep in mind how the fight against terrorism and the promotion and protection of human rights impact on each other. We constantly underline that the fight against terrorism must be conditioned on maintaining respect for human rights, not the other way round. I would even go one step further. In my judgment, fostering human rights should become an integral part of the fight against terrorism. Only then can we hope to defuse the social tensions on which terrorism feeds.
Once again I would like to congratulate the honourable Member on his report. It raises issues of considerable importance. It raises the sort of issues which I have had to tackle before in other circumstances, for example in reorganising the police and security services in Northern Ireland and basing that reorganisation on the fundamental proposition that the forces of law and order are there to protect and maintain human rights and should have no truck with the undermining of human rights."@en1
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