Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-04-25-Speech-3-274"
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"en.20070425.35.3-274"2
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".
Mr President, I warmly welcome the adoption of this report and will pass on the valuable suggestions you have made during the debate and in the report to Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner.
Some of the hard-won successes over the last 10 years should not go unnoticed. The visit of the Special Rapporteur on Torture in December 2005 had been a regular request of the EU for over five years. His arrival in Beijing was therefore a considerable achievement. The review of death penalty cases by the Supreme Court, as mentioned in Parliament’s report, has been a key delivery of the dialogue.
In relation to forced labour, the Commission, like Parliament, is concerned at the high incidence of Laogai camps and the export of goods produced within them.
Concerning the Human Rights Council, as I had the opportunity to state earlier, and notwithstanding initial scepticism, this remains the most important human rights forum and has shown positive signs, such as in the case of Darfur. The Commission is committed to working with the other EU institutions and like-minded partners to break the HRC’s politicisation, and to working with partner countries.
Concerning the Fundamental Rights Agency, it was clear from the debate in the Council during the adoption of the regulation creating the Agency that the weight of opinion is clearly against extending the mandate of that Agency to cover third countries. Nevertheless, the regulation provides that, after the Agency has been in operation for three years, an evaluation of its performance will be undertaken. That evaluation would cover the question of whether the scope or tasks of the Agency should be extended.
I would like to emphasise that the Commission fully shares the European Parliament’s support for the EU Guidelines on Human Rights, which are potentially one of the most effective instruments the EU has in this field.
Within this framework I am happy to announce that the European Union Guidelines on Human Rights will be the main focus of this year’s internal training programme on human rights for Commission staff, and we will also instruct our delegations accordingly.
The Commission has reservations regarding the suggestion the report makes to identify, in the context of the annual report, a list of countries of particular concern with respect to human rights violations. We should avoid listings in this area as it would be difficult to establish the criteria based on such general grounds. This is different from listing, for example, countries allowing the recruitment of child soldiers, where there are very clear indicators. The Commission would prefer to support the practice of identifying countries to be targeted by demarches and actions on a case-by-case basis.
Let me now briefly touch upon some of the issues raised during this debate.
Concerning Guantánamo, the European Union has underlined repeatedly that the fight against terrorism must be conducted in accordance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law. The Commission believes that the Geneva Conventions apply to all persons captured on the field of battle. The Commission also takes the view that the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention against Torture apply to Guantánamo Bay. Every person detained must enjoy a status under international law and is entitled not to be detained arbitrarily and to receive due process and a fair trial. Guantánamo is an anomaly and the European Union continues to call for its closure.
Concerning Belarus, the Commission will continue to work to counter human rights abuses in Belarus. Although the authoritarian nature of the current government makes it impossible for the European Union to offer Belarus full participation in the European Neighbourhood Policy, the Commission believes that the launch of the shadow ENP action plan for Belarus has been very useful in raising awareness amongst Belarusian citizens of the benefits which the European Neighbourhood Policy would offer if the authorities were to demonstrate respect for democratic values and human rights. The Commission is already funding a wide range of projects to support civil society, such as projects to promote freedom of the media in Belarus and to support the European Humanities University in exile. The Commission will naturally seek to support similar initiatives in the future.
The European Union continues to hold human rights consultations with Russia twice each year. Those consultations give the European Union the opportunity to raise a wide variety of concerns, such as the situation in Chechnya, the treatment of human rights defenders and the impact of the revised NGO and anti-extremist laws. Moreover, the European Union does not raise human rights issues only at the consultations, but also at other meetings as appropriate.
Concerning China, the Commission welcomes Parliament’s constructive comments on the EU-China human rights dialogue. The Commission also recognises that there is a need to strengthen and improve the EU-China human rights dialogue and has said as much in the clearest of terms in its recent communication, ‘EU-China: Closer partners, growing responsibilities’."@en1
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