ERRC: EU Urged To Look Within
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From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 16:41:13 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: ERRC: EU Urged To Look Within
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: European Roma Rights Center <[email protected]>
ERRC: EU URGED TO LOOK WITHIN
EU URGED TO LOOK WITHIN
PRESS STATEMENT 12 DECEMBER 2000
The European Roma Rights Center, an international public interest law
organisation which documents the situation of Roma throughout Europe
and provides legal defence in cases of abuse, today expressed dismay
that the European Union’s second Annual Human Rights Forum, to be
convened in Paris on December 13, continues the unfortunate EU
tradition of treating human rights as a purely external matter.
Notwithstanding the near-unanimous pleas of NGOs at last fall’s first
Human Rights Discussion Forum for future meetings to address also
human rights issues internal to EU member states, the Paris meeting
will again ignore these issues and instead have as its focus “the
external action of the Union.”
In declining an invitation to attend, Dimitrina Petrova, Executive
Director of ERRC, stated, “Racial discrimination and growing
anti-immigrant intolerance are only some of the serious human rights
problems which plague many EU member states. We as well as other NGOs
have been looking to the French Presidency and the Commission in
Brussels to develop the framework for an open and forthright dialogue
about these questions. Insofar as the EU took the trouble at last
year’s meeting to solicit NGO views, ERRC had hoped that the second EU
human rights meeting would address them. The programme of the one-day
conference in Paris clearly demonstrates that the much-criticised
approach of the Union to human rights remains unchanged.”
The agenda of the Paris meeting is all the more disappointing in light
of the frequency with which European leaders have called for an end to
an exclusively “outer-focused” EU human rights policy. In her opening
remarks at last year’s Discussion Forum, Finland’s then Foreign
Minister (and now President) Tarja Halonen declared, “In order to be
credible, the EU must be consistent. It is very difficult to convince
outsiders of the EU’s priorities unless we are seen to be applying the
same standards ourselves. The realization of human rights in the
Union’s internal and external dimensions are indeed two sides of the
same coin. We should therefore look at the situation inside the EU
area in relation to our external relations.”
In its “Human Rights Agenda for the European Union for the Year 2000,”
the ComitÈ des Sages of the European Commission, noting the widespread
human rights violations within the Union, concluded, “A Union which is
not prepared to embrace a strong human rights policy for itself is
highly unlikely to develop a credible external policy, let alone to
apply it with energy or consistency. As long as human rights within
Europe are considered to be an area in which the Union has only a very
limited role, their status in the Union’s external policy will remain
tenuous.” And earlier this year, the “Wise Men” report on human rights
in Austria “strongly recommend[ed] the development of a mechanism
within the EU to monitor and evaluate the commitment and performance
of individual Member States with respect to the common European
values.”
More than one year after the first annual Human Rights Forum held by
the EU, there is little evidence that these views have been adequately
taken into account by those responsible for developing the Union’s
human rights policy.
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TEL.: +36 1 4132200 -- FAX: +36 1 4132201
The European Roma Rights Center is an international public interest
law organisation which monitors the rights of Roma and provides legal
defence in cases of human rights abuse. For more information about the
European Roma Rights Center, visit the ERRC on the web at
http://errc.org.
European Roma Rights Center
1386 Budapest 62
P.O. Box 906/93
Hungary
Telephone: (36 1) 4132200
Fax: (36 1) 4132201
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individual donors for its continued existence. If you believe the ERRC
performs a service valuable to the public, please join in enabling its
future with a contribution. Gifts of all sizes are welcome; bank
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European Roma Rights Center
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99P00402686
1054 Budapest
Bathory utca 1
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