Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-12-13-Speech-2-257"
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"en.20051213.56.2-257"2
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Madam President, I very much welcome the latest edition of the EU Annual Report on Human Rights covering the Union’s human rights activities for the period of June 2004 to June 2005. The special thing about this report is that, for the first time, it has been drawn up jointly by the Council, Parliament and the Commission. The Council and the Commission have been doing so in recent years, but, for the first time, Parliament is also associated with it. That gives valuable credit to the report.
The European Union derives great strength in its relations with third countries from unified positions on many human rights issues of strategic importance. I need think only of the guidelines we have agreed on the death penalty, torture, children in armed conflict and human rights defenders. These, used well, are excellent tools of great influence. I would therefore like to salute the efforts undertaken under the Luxembourg and UK Presidencies this year in orchestrating very effective campaigns under these guidelines. I would also like to salute the work of the many Commission delegations which contributed so effectively to the respective Troika demarches in the target countries. The same teamwork is true for the outreach campaign on the subject of the envisaged Human Rights Council – which I mentioned at the beginning – which was conducted in 77 countries. The more that the Union, its Member States and its institutions speak with one voice on human rights matters, the greater the political impact is. Therefore, we should not cease in our efforts, in the Council, in Parliament and in the Commission, to work together as closely and efficiently as possible. In that sense, we present this annual report and hopefully this is a stark reminder of the enormous challenges still lying ahead and the good work that has been done in the past.
The EU Annual Report on Human Rights is a very important expression of the crucial importance of human rights policy in the overall policy setting of the European Union. It covers both the EU internal policy developments in the human rights dimension, in particular in the external and international dimensions. Its broad coverage of all major thematic and geographic human rights issues underscores the European Union’s strong attachment to the protection and promotion of human rights as defining principles of the Union across the board: as a community of shared values, founded on the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law. Let me briefly touch upon some of these items. I have six points to make.
This year is a crucial year for the future of the UN human rights system, with the ongoing negotiations on the creation of a new institution, the Human Rights Council, as a successor to the existing, widely contested Human Rights Commission. In pursuit of the UN Summit conclusions in September, it is without exaggeration the rarest of opportunities for the international community to club together to improve on the ability of the UN to monitor, improve and act decisively on critical human rights situations throughout the world. Had it not been for the European Union, it would not have worked. I was there at the start of the Millennium Summit. I know how difficult it was to come to an agreement, but there, the EU made the difference. Our expectations remain high as to the expected result, and our capacity to influence the world community positively should have a favourable bearing upon the negotiating process. However, we should be under no illusions as to the resistance many countries are putting up to improving effectively the current UN human rights system. We will need to mobilise all our energies and outreach efforts if we are to bring the current, rather difficult negotiations to a successful conclusion.
The human rights dimension impacts increasingly on the European Union’s external relations with a range of countries around the world: the human rights dialogue with China; the dialogue with Iran – though, regrettably, we have not had a dialogue round for more than a year, but we hope to have one again; the human rights consultations with Russia; the local human rights dialogues at the level of the heads of missions of the European Union in numerous other countries; and, specifically, our developments under the European Neighbourhood Policy and its human rights related agenda under the various action plans, where a great deal is always concentrated and reserved for human rights. All this amply demonstrates that the European Union is not alone in actively pursuing its agenda of human rights promotion in its external policy: we are also seeing an increasing willingness by our partners to acknowledge that human rights protection is an essential feature of their own countries’ development. Still, much has to be done.
In this context, I am often asked what these dialogues or consultations really achieve. My answer to that is as follows: as each round is completed, so another opportunity has been taken not only to exchange ideas – so important to our dialogue partners who do not wish to be preached to – but above all, for us, also to explain from our own hard-won experience how we, in the European Union, have adapted legislation and administrative practices in order to respect fundamental rights and how we expect our partners to take a similar path. I am convinced that, little by little, the message gets through. The dialogues and consultations allow the EU to raise and discuss individual cases of political prisoners or other persons suffering human rights abuses.
On the basis of the European Community’s association agreements or partnership and cooperation agreements with third countries, the Commission regularly reviews the partner countries’ respect for international human rights standards. Indeed, the policy dialogues with many of our partners under these agreements include substantial discussions on relevant human rights and democracy related issues in partner countries. Our colleague has already mentioned some very concrete issues. The Commission has taken the initiative to establish – with some of those policy dialogues – working groups on human rights and good governance, within the framework of the regular Joint Committee consultations, for example, with Vietnam, Jordan or Morocco. I would like to draw your attention, in particular, to the five-year work programme on Barcelona, where important goals on human rights are indeed included.
Moreover, as you are aware, all Community agreements now contain a specific human rights clause as an essential element. In this respect, the Commission is keen to ensure that the clauses are used as a positive tool to improve the human rights situation in partner countries. It is my belief that these structured exchanges on human rights offer a very promising way of realising the goals for which the human rights clauses have been included. Indeed, there will be times, in cases of widespread, egregious human rights violations, when sanctions need to be imposed or even an agreement suspended, such as in the case of Zimbabwe or Togo. However, generally speaking, we should avoid putting too much emphasis on a ‘mechanical’ approach to sanctions or suspension. Rather, it seems to me, the crucial point is to scrutinise systematically the human rights records of our partners and to induce them through political and assistance means to live up to their obligations under the human rights clause of the agreement. In that context, I am very grateful for the draft report on the human rights clauses prepared so assiduously by the honourable Member, Mr Agnoletto. His report will oblige all human rights actors within the European Union, and particularly within its institutions, to reflect further on their value and on the most appropriate way of using them.
The EU Annual Human Rights Report also reflects the re-casting of the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights for the 2005-06 period. The modifications to the programming under that initiative have been based on the result of a careful assessment and designed to respond in the first place to the demands of the potential beneficiaries of the initiative. As a consequence, four campaigns have been designed with a more flexible geographic coverage and integrating actions at global, regional and country level. Two elements are particularly dear to me: the stronger commitment to mainstreaming the rights of women and children, as well as the enhanced incentive for the effective participation of civil society organisations from partner countries in the developing world.
At the moment, while the last contracts under the 2004 budget of this initiative are being awarded, the publication of the important calls for proposals for the 2005-06 budgets is imminent; indeed, they should be published any day now. At the same time, country-specific calls for proposals are going ahead, and the next annual report will give details of this exercise. The key point here is that the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights, in its present and future forms, is an essential and integral part of the European Union’s overall human rights policy."@en1
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