Strasbourg, 26/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - A resolution on violence against religious communities was passed by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) on Wednesday 24 April by 148 to 3, with 7 abstentions. This is not the first time that PACE has discussed this issue and expressed its concerns.
In January 2011, PACE put forward a recommendation on tackling violence against Christians in the Middle East, which was passed by an overwhelming majority but then ignored by the Committee of Ministers, as was pointed out in the debates on the resolution more than two years later. Concerned about this inactivity, the parliamentarians decided to ring the alarm bell again and strongly reaffirm the values and fundamental rights on which the Council of Europe is based, along with many of its member countries, explained Italy's Luca Volonte (EPP, Centre Right) as he opened the debate, in which many concerns were voiced by Left and Liberal parliamentarians. Nikolis Villhmsen (GUE, Communist, Denmark) said the report was not what had been expected because it implies that religious rights are more important than fundamental rights and he hoped this was not the start of a new trend. Similar noises were made by another Dane, Socialist Mogens Jensen, who regretted that the resolution did not talk about secularism or violence within religious communities, such as genital mutilation and forced marriages.
Another fear expressed was that of attacks on abortion and contraception by doctors on the grounds of religion and the rejection of same sex marriage. Swede Tina Acktoft, speaking on behalf of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe, said she would have hoped to see more references to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. Most of the reservations were removed by the adoption of a series of amendments by the GUE, allowing a massive vote for the resolution which, on its cover sheet, recalls Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights and Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights both of which refer to the freedom of religion and freedom of conscience. In this resolution, PACE members call on Council of Europe member states to reaffirm that respect of civil rights is a common basis for countries' relationships with others and they should ensure that agreements with other countries include a clause on democracy that covers the freedom of religion. The resolution extends this call to the European Union because, in the final paragraph, it states that the Council of Europe assembly urges the EU to step up its monitoring of the situation facing religious communities in its dialogue with countries outside the EU and to subject its neighbourhood policy and financial aid to high levels of protection of human rights, particularly the freedom of religion, and high levels of awareness raising of such matters carried out by the non-EU countries in question. Violent clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma were discussed in brief, but nobody mentioned the recent lifting of EU sanctions against Burma. It would have been interesting to learn how the PACE views the restoration of normal relations with Burma, despite its appalling human rights record. (VL/transl.fl)