Brussels, 16/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - Present for the first time in Brussels since her election last August as Secretary General of Amnesty International, the Bangladeshi Irene Kahn issued a strong appeal for the European Union to take a global lead in efforts to protect human rights throughout the world, "which is the best guarantee for peace". Following the September attacks on the United States, Ms. Kahn pleads for "fear not winning from these events" and draws attention to the fact that "the security debate, in the current atmosphere of global crisis, must not be allowed to compromise basic human rights". For Ms. Kahn, it is of foremost importance to enshrine these rights in the Union's political agenda. "We must consider the kind of society we want, the values we choose to promote. The responsibility is incumbent on the international community". This appeal comes in an open letter that Amnesty International addressed to the Heads of state and Government who are to meet in Laeken in December, in which the organisation asks them to:
1. develop a comprehensive approach to the realisation of the full spectrum of human rights: this challenge must be based on the full, inclusive and non-negotiable application of the entire body of international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law, as a means of preventing human rights violations that cause people to flee and seek refuge elsewhere'
2. bring the asylum debate into the human rights perspective and undertake a leading role in the world for the protection of human rights and refugees;
3. express a clear, explicit and unequivocal commitment to the right of asylum in the EU, ensuring that any asylum system established at EU level does ensure access of refugees to its territory and to fair and satisfactory asylum procedures which guarantee the full and inclusive application of the UN Refugee Convention and of other international human right treaties.