THE EU: The EU is failing to address adequately human rights violations in non-EU countries - so-called third countries - and often ignores abuses perpetrated by big trading partners, according to a new report.
The European Parliament's report on human rights in the world in 2005 criticises the EU's failure to propose resolutions to the UN Human Rights Council condemning abuses in China, Zimbabwe and Chechnya.
It also draws specific attention to the weakness of human rights engagements with Morocco and the Western Sahara, Tunisia, Syria, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Algeria and Egypt. The EU continues to see relations with Middle East and north African neighbours as primarily of trade and economic assistance, even though its existing EuroMed agreements include human rights clauses, it says.
"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," concludes the report, which proposes that the EU publish a more comprehensive annual report similar to one published by the US government every year.
Ironically, the report was published a day after MEPs voted to sanction a proposed €144 million fisheries deal between Morocco and the EU. Human rights groups have strongly condemned the deal, alleging that it breaks international law by including the right to fish Western Sahara's territorial waters.
Western Sahara is a former Spanish colony in north Africa that was annexed by Morocco in 1976. The invasion occurred despite a declaration by the International Court of Justice in 1975 that Western Sahara had the right to self-determination. A UN peace plan in 1991 to set up a referendum in the territory to determine its future status has been frustrated by Morocco for more than a decade.
Despite opposition by some MEPs the deal was sanctioned in a parliamentary vote with 409 MEPs in favour, 167 against and 79 abstentions.
The parliament's report also asks the European Commission and Council to raise the issue of extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture in custody in Chechnya, as well as attacks faced by human rights defenders engaged in investigating and speaking out about human rights violations there.
It notes with regret the EU's refusal to sponsor a resolution on human rights abuses in Chechnya, despite a resolution issued by the parliament on the issue back in February 2005 for the Union to do so.
The report says several EU states - including Ireland - have failed to sign and ratify the UN's Optional Protocol on Torture. It says the EU could act more forcefully on the issue with regard to third countries if all member states ratified the protocol.
The report's author, British MEP Richard Howitt, said Ireland should sign and ratify the protocol to send a strong message to other countries that may use torture.
He said the EU should introduce a sliding scale of sanctions against third countries that abused human rights and implement the human rights and democracy clauses that already exist in the EU's international agreements.