Dublin, 06/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commissioner for external relations, Chris Patten stressed the strengths and weaknesses of the European Union's contribution to the promotion of human rights in the world in a text forwarded to the conference held in Dublin on 4 March on "Protection of Human Rights in the 21st Century - Towards Greater Complementarity within and between European Regional Organisations".
Among the EU's "strengths", Mr. Patten refers to: - the legal framework, citing Article 6 of the Amsterdam Treaty, as well as Articles 11 of Cfsp and 177 on development cooperation; - the "political weight" that a Community of fifteen States, with an elected European Parliament, represents; - the "economic clout" and competence of the EU. "How can we use this economic muscle"? Patten wonders, and answers: "Carefully. There is scope for ad hoc - and preferably targeted sanctions (…) We have them for Burma (…) for Serbia". And then adds: "I am generally sceptical that isolation and economic sanctions promotes respect for human rights". "It has not worked for Cuba. It is interesting to note that some of the worst abusers of human rights - North Korea, Burma - choose to isolate themselves, politically and economically (…) For example, Burma (…) recently restricted the import of everyday goods such as beer (…) Maybe the military regime thinks that drinking Guinness encourages dangerous democratic ideas"; - a significant budget, with almost 100 million under the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights, and an annual an annual budget for external assistance.
As for the weaknesses, Patten cites the need to agree among fifteen, which is particularly difficult "where political - or commercial - stakes are perceived to be high". Recognising that Member States had not manage in the past, for example, to agree on a resolution on China, Patten nevertheless stressed that there were "many examples" of unanimously adopted approaches to human rights, like the one on the abolition of the death penalty.
Mr. Patten also turned to the situation in Chechnya, considering that "we should not allow the Russian Federation to play off one institution (the Council of Europe) against another (the OSCE)", and said that he "fully understood" Mary Robinson's, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, wish to see the situation in Chechnya "discussed in Geneva this month" (by the UN Human Rights Commission).