Subj: Europe's human rights rhetoric at odds with reality, report finds



Date:  Friday October 9, 1998 



Source: The Guardian, UK





Europe's human rights rhetoric at odds with reality, report finds 

By Martin Walker in Brussels 



European governments have moved to squash key proposals in a strongly

worded report on human rights policy in the European Union, due to be

published today. 



The report claims that Europe's "strong rhetoric on human rights is not

matched by the reality". It comes from a high-ranking committee that

included Lord Jenkins and the United Nations human rights commissioner,

Mary Robinson.



Early drafts of the report, obtained by the Guardian, called on the EU to

set up a special department led by a new commissioner to co-ordinate human

rights work throughout the European Commission.



The final draft calls for a new commissioner, but there is no mention of a

department. The report is to be released today at a human rights conference

in Vienna. Austria currently holds the rotating EU presidency.



Strong references in the initial version to "inhumane and degrading

treatment of detainees", and specifics on asylum-seekers who died in police

custody, have also faded away in the final version, entitled Human Rights

Agenda for the European Union.



But the report does warn against "the tendency towards a Fortress Europe

which is hostile to 'outsiders' and discourages refugees and asylum-seekers".



It says: "The quality of justice in the EU is inevitably - and rightly -

judged in part by our response to the plight of refugees fleeing

persecution. Yet within Europe we see pressures to shape asylum policy to

accommodate nationalism and to weaken accepted international protection

standards in the name of greater 'efficiency'."



The report comes soon after Tony Blair spoke in China of the need to allow

dissent and open debate and Germany's new Social Democrat government under

Gerhard Schroder pledged to put human rights "at the centre of our concerns".



The report was requested by the EU Commission, which wanted to chart a new

human rights policy to mark the 50th anniversary of the Universal

Declaration on Human Rights.



But the sensitivities it exposed illustrate its conclusion that EU human

rights policies are "ambivalent, incoherent and effectively in disarray".



It recommends that a senior EU official be appointed to promote human

rights as a key part of foreign and domestic policies across the board, and

calls for a new monitoring agency to report on developments worldwide.



"The internal and external dimensions of human rights must be seen as two

sides of the same coin. A union which is not prepared to embrace a strong

human rights policy for itself is highly unlikely to develop a credible

external policy," it says.



It recommends that the EU publish an annual report on international human

rights to monitor countries with which it has trade or aid relationships.



The call for an annual survey reflects concern that a parallel survey by

the United States state department each year is tailored to American

diplomatic priorities.



"A European Union which fails to protect and promote human rights

consistently and effectively will betray Europe's shared values and its

long-standing commitment to them. However, the EU's existing policies are

no longer adequate," it says.



"The EU must conduct an informed, consistent, credible and effective"

policy, the report goes on. "But it cannot do so in the absence of an

authenic commitment" underpinned by political, financial and administrative

support.



The present EU approach "tends to be splintered in many directions, lacks

the necessary leadership and profile and is marginalised in policy-making."



The report is to be posted on the Internet today

(http://www.iue.it/AEL/Welcome.html)