Published: Friday 20 January 2006 | Updated: Friday 20 January 2006
MEPs and an NGO scold Europe over human rights record
In Short:
Human Rights Watch has accused European countries of ignoring extensive human rights abuses in China and Russia. The European Parliament is calling on the EU institutions to "confront their responsibilities" in raising concerns about human rights. Brief News:
In a joint resolution adopted on 19 January, the European Parliament strongly condemned all acts of terrorism committed throughout the Russian Federation. Specifically, the MEPs expressed their deep concern over the failure by the Council and the Commission to address the ongoing serious human rights violations in the Chechen Republic.
The resolution urges the Council and the Commission to "confront their responsibilities" in connection with the "most serious human rights issues" in the Union's immediate neighbourhood. The MEPs have also called on the Commission to assess the effectiveness of its humanitarian aid to the Northern Caucasus region.
Meanwhile, in its latest annual World Report, the US-based Human Rights Watch criticised the EU for its "poor" human rights policy record. According to the report, some members of the EU "continued to subordinate human rights in their relations with others whom they deemed useful in fighting terrorism or pursuing other goals. That tendency, coupled with the European Union's continued difficulty in responding firmly to even serious human rights violations, meant that the EU did not compensate for this diminished human rights leadership".
The report pointed to an "unseemly competition between the leaders of Britain, France and Germany to manifest their closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite grave concerns over the human rights situation in Chechnya.
Commission spokeswoman Emma Udwin said that "it is simply not the case that we shy away from raising concerns about human rights [in Russia]. The EU and Moscow have had several diplomatic clashes in recent years over Russia's handling of militant Chechen separatists," she said. http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-151770-16&type=News
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