Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-12-13-Speech-2-256"
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"en.20051213.56.2-256"2
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Madam President, the Presidency warmly welcomes this debate. It emphasises the high priority which all EU institutions attach to the promotion and protection of human rights. It also recognises the immense importance of communicating the EU’s policies and actions in support of human rights clearly and confidently to the outside world.
I would like to repeat, at this point, the Council’s warm welcome for the re-establishment of Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights last year. I know how much the Council, and in particular its Working Group on Human Rights, values the contact and cooperation which is being established with that subcommittee.
This year’s report also sets out, for the first time, to provide readers with practical examples of the EU in action. For example, the chapter on racism, xenophobia and non-discrimination includes information on an EIDHR project to combat discrimination against Dalits in Nepal. The chapter on the rights of the child includes a project to promote the rights of children in the New Independent States. We believe that these specific examples will help readers make the connection between EU policy and our ability to deliver real changes to the lives of real people right around the world.
A further innovation this year was the introduction of some analysis of where EU action has worked well and, indeed, where there were gaps in our performance. A short analysis is provided at the end of each main chapter. It will always be the case that some internal reflection must remain internal, if the EU is to act effectively in, for example, UN negotiations or in its relations with certain third countries. But it is also important for NGOs and other key partners to have a sense of where we are content with our performance and where we ourselves want to do more. This analysis is a modest but useful step in that direction.
Like any annual report, this one has its limits. Agreed by the Council in early October, it provides information on EU action up to June 2005. Events have obviously moved on since then. Our Presidency has sought to use the six months since June to build on the broad range of existing EU commitments. We have taken forward efforts to mainstream human rights throughout the European Union’s work. We have, for example, sought to implement the EU’s human rights guidelines, with a particular focus on freedom of expression, by action in support of those who defend human rights where they have suffered for exercising their freedom of expression.
Within the United Nations, the EU is actively involved in negotiations in New York to establish a new UN Human Rights Council. There have also been many specific human rights issues and concerns which have been taken up over the past six months. We will look today, for example, at the situation in Tunisia. Many of these issues could be the subject for next year’s annual report.
In conclusion, I look forward to hearing the views of the European Parliament and those of the Commission on the report itself, and on the various issues that it covers. We want to work to ensure that this report is right. But, more importantly we need to continue to work together to get EU policies and actions right, to ensure that we have real gains in human rights protection around the world to report in years to come.
The then General Affairs Council decided in December 1998, on the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that the European Union should enhance its actions on human rights, and that it should draw up an annual report on human rights. This year’s report – covering the period from 1 July 2004 to 30 June 2005 – is the seventh such annual report. Its purpose is to provide an overview of the work of the European Union, through its institutions, in promoting human rights.
It is, obviously, only able to highlight those areas where EU action has been particularly significant during the reporting period. It does not seek to be fully comprehensive and it does not try to duplicate information which is already available from, for example, EU websites, or to provide an account of action taken by individual Member States. But it does provide European Union citizens, civil society partners and governments and human rights defenders in third countries with a regular, accessible overview of EU concerns, priorities and actions.
Much of the report focuses on the European Union’s promotion of human rights and democratisation as part of its common foreign and security policy. But, domestically, the European Union must also be consistent and coherent with the policies that it promotes abroad. We all recognise that, while much has been done to promote human rights within the European Union, there is still scope to improve. The report therefore sets out significant internal developments, including the continuing work to establish an EU Fundamental Rights Agency. And the chapters on thematic priorities, such as the human rights of women or human rights and business, include developments within the European Union, as well as those abroad and in multilateral organisations.
The report also provides information on EU instruments and initiatives in third countries, for example, the EU’s human rights dialogues with China and Iran, and the new human rights consultations established during 2005 with Russia. It includes information on the wide range of activities implemented by the European Commission through the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights.
The report highlights that the EIDHR was created at Parliament’s initiative, and that Parliament has used its budgetary powers to increase substantially the resources earmarked for the protection of human rights and democracy. There is also information about policy development and specific action in relation to 17 thematic issues. These include areas where the EU has adopted human rights guidelines such as on the death penalty, torture, human rights defenders and the rights of children, including their involvement in armed conflict, as well as on other issues, ranging from human rights and terrorism to democracy and elections and the International Criminal Court.
The report provides an overview of EU action in the key international organisations: the United Nations Commission for Human Rights and the UN General Assembly Third Committee, the OSCE and the Council of Europe. It also provides a country-focused perspective, with an account of EU action in its immediate neighbourhood, in Africa, in the Americas, in Asia and in the Middle East.
The Council will continue to look for ways to improve its report. There were a number of innovations in 2005. The first – which, I am sure you will agree, was welcome, and perhaps overdue – was the inclusion of a substantive chapter outlining the extensive work that the European Parliament has done in support of human rights and democratisation.
Everyone recognises that Parliament adopts its own annual report and resolution on human rights in the world and on the European Union’s policy. However, I think it is both right and helpful that readers of this report get a sense of how the Council, Commission and Parliament all contribute together to the common EU goal of promoting and protecting human rights around the world."@en1
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