| Author (Person) | Cronin, David |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.12, No.7, 23.2.06 |
| Publication Date | 23/02/2006 |
| Content Type | News |
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By David Cronin Date: 23/02/06 Austria's presidency of the EU must highlight the situation of detainees in Guantánamo Bay if the Union's work on human rights is to have any credibility, according to a European Parliament report. Some 500 inmates are currently being held without charge in the Cuban prison camp, first opened by the US during its military action against Afghanistan in 2002. The Parliament's annual report on human rights in the world describes the situation there as a key challenge for the EU. An initial discussion on the report by members of the assembly's foreign affairs committee took place this week. UK Socialist Richard Howitt, who drafted the report, said that the EU needed to maintain a consistent approach when dealing with human rights issues in different countries and that this should not be compromised by the clampdown against terrorism or economic concerns. Although the EU has been discussing the idea of introducing human rights concerns into its work in various policies since the European Commission suggested such an approach in 2001, "it still appears that too often human rights are dispensed with in the face of strong opposition or become negotiable when confronted with other interests", Howitt added. Human rights advocates have complained that EU representatives have shied away from raising Guantánamo during high-level dialogue with the US, including summits with President George W. Bush. A United Nations report published earlier this month argued that some aspects of the detainees' treatment - such as the force-feeding of hunger strikers - were tantamount to torture. But an Austrian diplomat said that the surrounding problems were being addressed in contacts with the Bush administration. "We do understand that the fight against terrorism presents legal systems with new challenges," the diplomat said. "Nevertheless, even in the fight against terrorism, humanitarian rules and international human rights law have to be upheld." A spokesman for the US Mission to the EU said "the State Department and the White House have addressed this issue in some depth over the past few days". In its response to the UN report, the State Department described allegations of torture in the detention camp as "hearsay". Howitt argued that the Commission needed to subject all aid programmes it administers to human- rights impact assessments. He said that the directorate-general for external relations did not have sufficient expertise on human rights among its staff. He also said that soldiers serving with EU military operations had sometimes been given inadequate training on human rights issues. For example, peacekeepers in Congo had not been trained on children's rights, he said. Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European commissioner for external relations, said recently that the Union "needed a better interplay of all our policy instruments", including a greater coherence between its work on human rights and security. The Commission is to present ideas on how to boost that coherence in a "concept paper" on foreign policy for the June EU summit, she added. A first draft of the European Parliament's report on the EU's Annual Report on Human Rights in the World 2005 was debated at the Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee in February 2006. The rapporteur, UK Socialist Richard Howitt, identified the situation in the US prison camp in Guantánamo Bay (Cuba) as one of the key challenges for the European Union. |
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| Source Link | http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Subject Categories | Values and Beliefs |
| Countries / Regions | Europe, United States |
