STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF IRELAND MR BRIAN COWEN, T.D. ON BEHALF OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

60th SESSION OF THE COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT
(GENEVA, 15 - 18 MARCH 2004)

GENERAL DEBATE

GENEVA, 15 MARCH 2004

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Irish Presidency of the European Union, 15 March 2004


Mr. Chairman,

I have the honour to address the Commission on Human Rights on behalf of the European Union. The Acceding States Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia, and the Candidate Countries Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, align themselves with this statement.

This Commission meets today under the shadow of the appalling act of barbarism that was perpetrated by terrorists in Madrid last Thursday, 11 March. That tragedy, the worst act of terrorism in Europe since the end of World War Two, affects all of us - in Spain, in the broad European Union and in the international community as a whole.

I express anew my deepest sympathy as well as the solidarity of the European Union to the people and Government of Spain at this time of adversity. We commend the measured and dignified manner in which the Spanish people have responded to this attack against them as innocent individuals, and against the democratic system of their country.

The United Nations, and the global human rights community, has also suffered grievously from acts of terrorism since this Commission last convened a year ago. We mourn the tragic loss of the late High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello. He and the other UN personnel who were killed or injured in Baghdad last August were resolutely committed to the ideals of the United Nations and to the safeguarding of human rights everywhere. In honouring them, we should draw inspiration from their sacrifice.

Mr. Chairman,

Particularly in the period since September 2001, the fight against terrorism has become a global priority. At the same time, that fight has posed new challenges for the promotion and protection of human rights.

Acts of terrorism can never be justified by any cause or ideology, and must be unreservedly condemned. The indiscriminate slaughter of unsuspecting human beings, which is the hallmark of terrorism, constitutes first and foremost a flagrant denial of the fundamental right to life of its victims.

All States have a duty to protect their citizens from terrorist attack and to combat terrorism in all its forms.

Yet - in order to receive the widest possible support and to be successful in the long term - the fight against terrorism must be conducted in full respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Fostering human rights should indeed become an integral part of the fight against terrorism.

We need also to address the causes of terrorism. To seek to understand the causes of terrorism should not be misunderstood as being soft on terrorism. On the contrary, this is an essential step in its elimination.

As any good physician will tell us, in treating a disease it is necessary to tackle its causes as well as its symptoms.

Let me reiterate in the strongest terms that this is not to justify - nor should it in any way encourage those who justify - acts of terror. Such acts, including the most recent acts of barbarity in Spain, are utterly to be condemned, just as their perpetrators must be confronted with utmost determination and brought swiftly to justice.

Mr. Chairman,

The international community must not weaken in its resolve to promote and protect human rights and to strengthen the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In this regard the European Union welcomes the appointment of Justice Louise Arbour as the new High Commissioner for Human Rights. Justice Arbour’s background as an internationally recognised jurist, with a wealth of experience in the field of human rights, well qualifies her to hold the position of High Commissioner. In her role as Chief Prosecutor for the two International Criminal Tribunals, for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, she has shown herself to be a strong, clear and consistent advocate on behalf of victims of human rights abuses. I am certain that she will make a decisive contribution to the Office and to promoting and protecting human rights. We look forward to working closely with her.

Mr. Chairman,

We are living in a period of great insecurity. People in all parts of the world recoil before the dangers of war, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, famine, disease, ethnic and religious hatred, organised crime.

The international community must confront these challenges. In doing so, we must work to bring about a more humane world where people can live in security and dignity, free from want and fear, and with equal opportunities to develop their human potential to the full.

This work cannot be fully accomplished without genuine international resolve and cooperation. The choice is stark - either we sustain and strengthen the international system and the rule of law, or we risk seeing it unravel. The Nobel Laureate William Butler Yeats put it graphically:

“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”.


In his address to the Commission last year, Sergio Vieira de Mello asked how we might improve the world’s security. He answered his own question by calling for “true security to be based on the proven principles of human rights”.

Respect for human rights therefore is an essential foundation for peace and security.


Mr. Chairman,

Threats to, and violations of human rights are the greatest source of insecurity in the world today.

In my view, when events within a country threaten international peace and security, they become the legitimate interest of the international community. Similarly, the international community cannot stand by and accept the large-scale flagrant and persistent violation of individual human rights. The primary responsibility for the protection of human rights rests with individual States. Where a State threatens human rights, it threatens not only the security of its own people but also the security of the international community. With human and international security in mind, the whole international community is all the more legitimately and rightly concerned at situations where human rights are threatened or violated.

We have received sharp lessons in the past. The trigger for intervening to prevent an attempted genocide should not be the moment when refugees begin to flood across a border.

It is of course proper to uphold sovereign authority over national territory. At the same time, there is a genuine question to be answered, as to whether this is to be done in absolutist terms, even for example in the face of mass killings or genocide.

The European Union is firmly convinced that promoting human rights, democratisation and the rule of law promotes peace and stability. We therefore fully support the gradual strengthening of human rights law and the international system for protecting human rights which has come about in the last sixty years.

The establishment of the International Criminal Court has been an important milestone along this road. It represents a further clear signal of the determination of the international community to bring to justice those who perpetrate genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The perpetrators of human rights violations must be held to account and their impunity ended. Over 90 ratifications have already been secured for the Court. I urge those who have not signed or ratified the Rome Statute to do so, and I urge all States to adhere firmly to the principles on which it is based.

Mr. Chairman,

There is no part of the globe that is absolutely free from human rights abuses. None of us is without fault. A history of systematic, organised and unparalleled abuses of human rights in the first half of the last century helped directly to bring countries together to form what has eventually become the European Union.

In recognition of the need to act to promote respect for human rights, the EU has written the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law into the Treaty on European Union. These values are clearly represented in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Union. While individual Member States may differ in their constitutional, legislative and administrative frameworks, all members of the Union are fully and demonstrably committed to these values and to ensuring that they are fully implemented within the Union. We have also come together with our partners in the Council of Europe to establish a strong and legally-binding system for protecting human rights across Europe.

Nevertheless, our own experience is far from perfect. The recent past, as well as the present, bears witness to our imperfections, not least in the worrying rise in racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance within the borders of the European Union. We are determined to combat these wherever they occur and to take the necessary measures to ensure that Europe remains a tolerant and inclusive society.

In terms of the country and thematic initiatives, which it takes at the Commission, the European Union bears a disproportionate burden. It does so because it recognises the force of a public acknowledgement, by the international community, that human rights' problems require concrete action. Therefore as in previous sessions, the EU will present initiatives and offer its comments under a number of agenda items on the human rights situation in individual countries.

All governments must be open for international scrutiny. We must all ask ourselves if we are fully consistent in implementing human rights standards at home. This goes to the heart of our credibility – in this Commission, in the international community in general and most importantly in our own countries. In this spirit I therefore urge all Governments to cooperate with the special procedures of the Commission on Human Rights and call on all governments to allow visits by the relevant UN human rights mechanisms.

Mr. Chairman,

From the right to life flow all other rights. The fight against the death penalty is a priority for the European Union, and we oppose it in all cases. The abolition of the death penalty is a catalyst in the progressive development of human rights. We urge all States to abolish capital punishment or at least introduce moratoria on its use.

The use of torture is among the most abhorrent violations of human rights. No exceptions from the prohibition against torture are permitted under international law. Still, torture persists, despite the efforts by the international community. Still, impunity for the perpetrators of torture continues to prevail in many countries.

The EU is committed to the struggle to ensure the protection, rights and well-being of children exposed to armed conflict. Unfortunately, the general situation for children remains grave and unacceptable. Parties to conflict continue to violate with impunity the rights of children.

We urge states to speed up the process of ratification of the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court, which includes, as a war crime, conscription or enlisting children under the age of fifteen years or using them to participate actively in hostilities in both international and non-international armed conflicts. In this connection, the EU reiterates the need to put an end to impunity by bringing to justice any perpetrators of crimes against children.

The EU’s commitment to the issue of children and armed conflict is underlined by the adoption, on 8 December 2003, of EU Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict. The implementation of these Guidelines is a priority of the European Union.

Mr. Chairman,

Tackling human rights issues should not be exclusive to governments - civil society also has an important role to play. Those individuals and organisations all over the world who inform, monitor and denounce violations of human rights are deserving of our praise.

I pay tribute to the many brave individuals around the world – defenders of human rights - who risk discrimination, imprisonment or worse to ensure that governments live up to their human rights obligations.

The EU in its contacts with countries in bilateral and multilateral fora will raise individual cases of human rights defenders who have faced persecution because of their legitimate work in defence of human rights. The EU is currently developing a strategy to strengthen the Union’s ability to provide coherent and effective support to the work of human rights defenders.

We are faced with a time of considerable stress for the international community; a time of challenge for the United Nations system. We must redouble our efforts to achieve a better and safer world for all our people. We must do so in the knowledge that the security that all peoples legitimately desire cannot be obtained without the widest cooperation. Nor can true security ever exist where human rights are violated. Nobody for example can sustain their own security in any meaningful or lasting way by infringing the rights of others, including their neighbours.

At this Commission on Human Rights, and at other United Nations fora, let us work together to build a world based on recognition of the inherent dignity of the human person; a world where all members of the human family will be guaranteed and will enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedoms as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace. This is the sure path to the more secure world that we all seek.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.