Brussels, 25/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - Three non governmental organisations (European Human Rights Network, the International Federation of Human Rights and the World Organisation against Torture) recently published their position on the implementation of the European Commission communications on human rights in the Mediterranean region (EUROPE 2 July and 13 March). The opinion of the NGOs is overall very positive. They have come up with, however, recommendations for strengthening provisions on women's rights and hope that the implementation of these communications will have a stronger impact on promoting and protecting human rights than the existing association agreements.
In the context of the communication on the Mediterranean, the three NGOs welcome the importance of the agreement afforded civil society but believe that the main criteria for identifying interlocutors has to be their independence from the authorities. They also recommend: consulting the NGOs at all levels (from political dialogue to the implementation of programmes); integration of the possibility of imposing sanctions in cases of violations of human rights, establishing a regional group of experts on human rights, making public the Commission reports on the human rights situation; giving a specific place to women's rights.
On the communication on the enlarged Europe, the three NGOs believe that the EU ought to: adopt a more liberal policy on visas for facilitating free movement of persons; fully respect in practice the international provisions on human rights and on the protection of immigrants and refugees in the context of its fight against illegal immigration, included the promotion and protection of women's rights.