SPEECH/11/161
Catherine Ashton
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and
Vice President of the European Commission
Remarks on UN Human Rights Council
European Parliament
Strasbourg, 9 March
Mr President,
I am pleased we have the chance to debate the work of the UN Human Rights
Council and how we can strengthen its overall impact.
As you know, I addressed the Council last week, together with many Foreign
Ministers from around the world. For obvious reasons, the situation in Libya was at
the heart of our discussions.
I am pleased the international community sent a strong and united political signal
regarding the on-going human rights violations in Libya. Already before the HighLevel Segment, the Council had called for an inquiry and recommended the
suspension of Libya's membership of the Council – which has since been confirmed
by the General Assembly in a unanimous decision.
All this is proof that multilateral institutions can live up to their mandate and act in
real-time. As I stressed in my remarks, the UN Human Rights Council has a
responsibility to ensure that stated intentions are translated into real action, real
progress. I think that Ms Pillay, whom I met in Geneva, is giving exactly the right
direction politically in order to make a difference on the ground. What matters in the
end is not the number of resolutions passed, but results in the real world that make
a difference to people in need.
I also emphasised that human rights are universal. We reject the accusation that
the EU is somehow trying to "export" so-called European values to other countries.
The rights to free speech, freedom of assembly, justice and equality are not
European rights: they are universal rights. And we must never fall into the trap of
believing that people in Africa, Asia or Latin America are less passionate about their
rights. That is why we speak out and act against human rights violations wherever
they occur.
We also recognise that Europe's own path on human rights protection hasn’t been
linear and that constant efforts, also inside Europe are needed. At the Human
Rights Council we are ready to discuss our own challenges, share experiences and
offer support to those working to improve respect for human rights around the
world.
We have several priorities for the 16th session of the Human Rights Council and we
have discussed these actively with our partners.
The EU will present an initiative on freedom of religion or belief. Faced in recent
months with an increasing number of acts of religious discrimination and violence in
different parts of the world, we need to send a strong, collective message against
religious intolerance and in favour of the freedom of religion or belief for all people
everywhere.
The EU will also table resolutions on Burma/Myanmar and the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea. We believe that in both cases the severity and number of human
rights violations justify the extension of the mandates of the respective UN Special
Rapporteurs.
The EU also supports the initiative to create a Special Rapporteur on the situation of
human rights in Iran as proposed by several countries and regions. We are
seriously concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran as was
also highlighted by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Navi Pillay. A
particular concern is the dramatically increasing number of death penalty cases –
more than 100 so far this year – and the repression of those exercising their rights
to freedom of expression and assembly.
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We feel the Council should address the situation in Egypt in an appropriate manner,
taking into account the rapidly evolving situation in that country. The EU welcomes
Egypt’s invitation to Ms Pillay to send members of her Office to the country. We
hope this mission will be dispatched without delay.
The EU also is engaging with the Tunisian authorities to jointly present a draft
resolution on the subject of boosting UN technical assistance on human rights in the
context of on-going transition.
Other key situations that need to be addressed by this session of the Human Rights
Council are Belarus, where we are deeply concerned at the number of political
prisoners; the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there are distressing reports of
continuing human rights violations, in particular widespread sexual violence; as well
as Côte-d'Ivoire.
Let me conclude by stressing once again the importance of the Human Rights
Council for the EU: the debates, the Resolutions, the Rapporteurs. But in the end,
these are only inputs. What truly matter are the outputs. The real test is whether we
make a difference on the ground. For this reason, the EU will work hard to
strengthen the Human Rights Council and especially its ability to address urgent
situations. This is a key objective of the on-going review process. We continue to
push for an ambitious result.
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