Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-17-Speech-3-305"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20081217.22.3-305"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Madam President, President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, 60 years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights launched a real global revolution, affirming the prophetic idea of Immanuel Kant, the philosopher, that the infringement of a right in a single country ought to be felt as such in any other part of the world.
The human rights revolution placed before the international community two closely inter-connected concepts. The first is that one cannot and should not distinguish between citizens and foreigners, men and woman, whites and blacks, Christians and Jews, Muslims and non-Muslims, believers and non-believers. In short, it confirms equality for all in claiming their own rights. The second concept is that humanity is itself the guarantee of dignity, and therefore nobody may be treated in an undignified manner, not even the worst of criminals. As Kant himself says, we cannot refuse the wicked man the respect that is his due as a man.
The European Union is considered to be the supreme home or temple of human rights protection. Effective protection and promotion of fundamental rights ought to be the cornerstone of democracy in Europe. The implementation of fundamental rights ought to be an objective of all European policies, and to that end, the EU institutions ought to promote them actively, protect them and take them into full consideration when drawing up and adopting legislation, drawing support from the activities of the Agency for Fundamental Rights. This agency can make the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights effective and, at the same time, can ensure compliance with the system established by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Unfortunately, within the European Union we have not always been able, through the political choices made by governments and the legislative activities of parliaments, to ensure the protection and promotion of fundamental rights. For six years, the European Parliament has not adopted a report on the status of fundamental rights within the European Union, while we have always been quick to point out infringements of fundamental rights outside our territory. We cannot only draw attention, rightly, to Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, the infringements in Colombia and in China, and then ignore the infringements that are occurring in our own countries.
I agree with what Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner said today: we need to build consistency between the European Union’s internal and external policies. A close analysis of the state of fundamental rights in the European Union is liable to confirm the unwelcome conclusion that in Europe, human rights are often protected only in name. To corroborate this statement, one only has to look at the conditions of displaced persons, national minorities, the Roma, stateless persons, refugees, asylum-seekers and economic migrants.
Tomorrow is International Migrants Day and the United Nations Convention has still not been ratified by even one of the Member States. In recent years, we have analysed the state of degradation of administrative centres for migrants which, in terms of both the law and living conditions, are outright black holes in which men and women are often treated in an inhumane and degrading way, without the requisite legal safeguards intended by laws which are often unacceptable and which, at the same time, guarantee abuses and impunity.
The situation of human rights within the European Union is by no means satisfactory, and the annual report by Amnesty International says as much. We must therefore try to operate an active policy to prevent systematic violation of the rights that ought officially to be guaranteed and defined as inviolable.
For that reason, we call upon the Council – and here I take full advantage of the presence of the Secretary of State – to include in future annual reports on human rights in the world, as well as an analysis of the situation worldwide, also an analysis of every Member State, so that we can – and I am just finishing, Madam President – avoid a double-standards approach. What kind of Europe do we want? That is the question which this report, for which I have the honour of being rapporteur, seeks to answer."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples