Euro MPs approve human rights agenda

Date: 19/09/1996

MEPS this week gave their backing to an extensive agenda to improve respect for human rights in the Union.

It covers a wide range of fundamental rights dealing with torture and ill-treatment, immigration and asylum, private and family life, freedom of thought and expression, racism and children's rights.

Approval of the lengthy resolution - by 223 votes to 158, with 50 abstentions - represented a notable achievement for its author, Spanish Christian Democrat MEP Laura De Esteban Martin.

The Parliament split essentially along political lines, with left-of-centre political groups backing the report while those on the right voiced opposition.

But in sharp contrast to last year, when deep political differences prevented the Parliament from adopting the annual human rights report, De Esteban succeeded in bridging two radically different approaches towards respect for human rights.

During this week's debate in Strasbourg, those differences were encapsulated by two German MEPs on opposite sides of the political fence. Socialist member Martin Schulz gave his group's broad support to the report, although he pleaded for a stronger commitment to economic and social rights and the right to a healthy environment.

But his compatriot Hartmut Nassauer reflected his Christian Democratic colleagues' view that only the right to life and individual freedoms should be covered. He said wider objectives were legitimate political positions, but should not be considered as human rights per se and warned that too broad a definition of the term would merely blur the concept itself.

Justifying her approach, De Esteban argued that MEPs could not credibly voice constructive criticism about the state of fundamental rights in non-EU countries if they were unable to comment on the situation within the Union itself.

She maintained that despite the EU's commitment to basic democratic principles, these had been breached in 1994 - the period covered by the report - in cases of overcrowded prisons in countries such as Italy, Greece, Belgium and Ireland.

To the annoyance of some MEPs, her report also contained other specific examples of alleged abuse.

It took Greece to task for its treatment of conscientious objectors and obstacles to free religious worship.

The UK was also criticised for its removal of trade union rights for employees at its GCHQ intelligence monitoring centre and urged to allow appeals by prisoners convicted controversially, as in the case of the murder of the newspaper delivery boy Carl Bridgewater.

In a bid to improve conditions in Europe's prisons, De Esteban called on member states to provide appropriate staff training on the treatment of suspects and prisoners. MEPs also backed changes to the 1965 privileges and immunities protocol to allow them to visit any prison in the Union.

The Intergovernmental Conference was urged to make specific changes to the existing treaties to give ordinary individuals greater access to the European Court of Justice and to allow the Union itself to become a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The report did not focus solely on cases and allegations of human rights abuses against individuals. It also drew attention to the victims of terrorism, condemned the attacks which took place in both Spain and Northern Ireland during 1994 and called on the Union to implement an effective system of compensation for victims of violent crimes.

Replying to the Monday evening debate, Foreign Affairs Commissioner Hans van den Broek confirmed to MEPs that EU governments would be presented with concrete proposals this autumn to clamp down on sex tourism and to prevent paedophile networks from exploiting the Internet.

He also reiterated the Commission's long-standing belief that the Union should sign up to the European Convention on Human Rights, but acknowledged that this enthusiasm was not shared by most member states now renegotiating the Maastricht Treaty at the IGC.