Brussels, 19/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN), a civil society organisation funded by the EU, regrets the way demand for the respect of human rights seems to have been watered down in the EU's new neighbourhood policy (ENP). The new ENP was unveiled on Wednesday 18 November.
The EMHRN is a civil society umbrella group of all human rights organisations, and is backed by the EU. In a press released published on Thursday 19 November, it “deeply regrets” that the new ENP “completely marginalises respect for human rights and international humanitarian law”. It states that this is a backward step for the EU, which has failed to seize the opportunity to promote democratic reforms at the heart of the ENP. The EU has missed a chance to very clearly mark the promotion of human rights and the protection of independent civil society as a key objective to ensuring good governance and the rule of law, says the EMHRN, calling on the EU and its member states to step up their support for independent civil society organisations in Sothern Mediterranean countries.
The organisation notes that “unfortunately, in the present communication, although civil society is designated as a privileged interlocutor for the EU, its contribution in key domains of concern to the EU has been marginalised”. This gives the EMHRN the feeling that human rights defence is constantly shrinking in the region, and this marginalisation of human rights in the new ENP contradicts not only the EU's fundamental values, but is also likely to lead the EU to repeat the errors of the past in the region, at the expense of its own interests. (Original version in French by Fathi B'Chir)