Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-11-30-Speech-3-084"
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"en.20051130.11.3-084"2
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".
Madam President, I listened with great interest to Honourable Members' views in the debate and I very much welcome the strength of feeling that there is on human rights issues. The governments of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam can be under no illusion that the Council takes human rights seriously. These governments are fully aware of the strength of feeling within the Council, within the EU Member States and within the European Parliament.
In July, I visited Cambodia and Laos where I attended the ASEAN Regional Forum. I went and saw a project in Cambodia which was taking vulnerable young people off the streets and doing absolutely terrific work. I also saw a project being supported by the UK Government, which is providing training for police officers in Cambodia to crack down on child sex tourism.
I know that a lot of other EU Member States are funding similar projects in other countries that are doing good work. I believe it is very important that we should be open and frank with governments where human rights abuses exist, but we should also offer words of encouragement where positive progress is made.
I note that today in the media, there is a report that sixty new Roman Catholic priests were ordained in a mass ceremony in Vietnam yesterday. That is a welcome development, but we should not forget that human rights abuses still exist in that country, as they do also in Cambodia and in Laos. We have had some very eloquent contributions explaining and cataloguing those human rights abuses.
I hope that Honourable Members here today continue to take every opportunity to visit these countries to find out the situation for themselves and to raise directly their human rights concerns within the governments of those countries.
When I was in Cambodia, I certainly raised the issue of Sam Rainsy and his party directly with Prime Minister Hun Sen. At the ASEAN Regional Forum, Javier Solana and I also discussed human rights issues.
The Council will continue to raise its concerns with these governments. This means being open, honest and frank where those governments are failing to live up to international standards. But we must base our concerns on authoritative information; we have to get our facts right. We must also recognise and encourage progress where it is made."@en1
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