Brussels, 16/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - With its adoption by show of hands on Thursday 16 December of the report by Laima Liucija Andrikienë (EPP, Lithuania), the European Parliament (EP) came out clearly for a strong and effective EU human rights policy, a sort of silver thread running through all external policy areas. That was the key message of the EP's first human rights report since the Lisbon Treaty came into force. In it, MEPs criticise the human rights records of inter alia China, Russia, Iran, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cuba.
With the EU External Action Service (EEAS) now in place, Parliament called on EU High Representative/Commission Vice-President Catherine Ashton to ensure that human rights and democracy-building become “the silver thread running through all external policy areas” and that “human rights do not disappear from the structure”. A special human rights directorate should be put in place to ensure that human rights are at the heart of the EU's external action, and a Special Representative for Human Rights should be appointed and given a clear mandate, MEPs add.
MEPs called for a global moratorium on the death penalty, in passing criticising countries like China, which stands accused of carrying out the greatest number of executions of all countries. They also urge Beijing to release human rights campaigner and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo immediately and unconditionally.
The EP believes, too, that, for there to be an effective international justice system, the greatest possible number of states must sign the International Criminal Court's Rome Statute.
Parliament also calls for: - the EU and its member states to use every political means to induce the United Nations to adopt swiftly a resolution for a worldwide moratorium on female genital mutilation; - human rights and democracy clauses and effective dispute mechanisms to be built into trade agreements, including fisheries agreements, between the EU and third countries; - human rights activists to be protected, including those of the Sarawi in the Western Sahara.
MEPs urge Russian judicial authorities to press ahead with the investigation into the death of Russian lawyer Sergey Magnitsky on 16 November 2009, and call on EU member states to help the United States by granting refugee status to former Guantánamo detainees.
At the end of the session on Thursday afternoon, MEPs passed three resolutions on human rights: one on the Ugandan “Baharti” law, which criminalises homosexuality and extended the definition of homosexual acts, a second on caning in Malaysia, and the third on the situation of the hostages in Sinai being held by drugs traffickers. EUROPE will return to these three resolutions. (Com.O.L./transl.rt)