Note on the First Year of Activities of the Subcommittee on Human Rights
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6 Hélène Flautre Chairperson of the Subcommittee on Human Rights Note on the first year of activities of the Subcommittee on Human Rights Executive summary This note is an overview of the first year of activity of the subcommittee and demonstrates the wide range of work which covered - with differing intensity -numerous geographical regions of the world, a wide range of human rights issues as well as important contemporary events in the political human rights cycle, such as international discussion on UN reform, the discussions surrounding the establishment of a fundamental rights agency of the EU, the appointment of Mr. Matthiessen as a Personal Representative for Human Rights of the High Representative of the EU for the Common Foreign and Security Policy as well as discussions with three successive EU presidencies (Dutch, Luxemburgish and British). Introduction: Since the beginning of the legislature the newly established Subcommittee on human rights has been an active participant in the life of the European Parliament. After its first year of existence it is useful to review its activities during this year and possibly come to conclusions how to further improve its work and streamline its operations, in order to strengthen the impact of the European Parliament's already very active work on human rights. The main tasks of the Subcommittee on human rights can be described as follows: 1. Evaluating the implementation of the EU instruments in the human rights and democracy field; Making the Commission and Council accountable for their actions in this field; 2. Setting-up a constant dialogue with international institutions on human rights issues so as to ensure coherence between EU instruments and international instruments; 3. Providing a platform to analyse human rights issues related to specific subjects and/or regions; using this platform to provide an input on human rights and democracy aspects to reports submitted to the foreign affairs committee, including on agreements with third countries 4. Preparing initiative reports on specific human rights instruments; 5. Mainstreaming human rights issues throughout the different bodies (committees and delegations) of the European Parliament; 1/14 DV/ 583150EN.doc 6. Organising and preparing the Sakharov prize award procedure; 7. Delegations of the Subcommittee; 8. Providing a platform for a permanent dialogue with civil society representatives; In view of these tasks this note will enumerate how these where put into effect and fulfilled in the meetings of the Subcommittee between July 2004 and October 2005. I. Evaluating the implementation of the EU instruments in the human rights and democracy field; Making the Commission and Council accountable for their actions in such field: One of the main tasks of the Sub-committee is to analyse and follow-up on the implementation of the different instruments available at the EU level in the field of human rights and democracy promotion: Financial instruments, human rights guidelines, human rights dialogues and EP & Council reports. Financial instruments: The EU has a set of financial instruments for human rights and democracy. One of them, the most important in the field of direct support to civil society working on human rights and democracy promotion, is the European Initiative for Democracy and Human rights (EIDHR). Indeed, though this instrument is meant to be complimentary to other financial instruments, it allows the direct funding of NGOs working in the human rights and democracy field. In this sense, it is a unique instrument. It was agreed with the former commissioner Patten that a regular and structured dialogue between the Commission and the Sub-committee would be held on this issue. The Sub-committee is therefore closely following-up the programming and implementation process of these budget lines. It was the subject of several of our meetings: - In its first meeting on 28 July 2004 the Subcommittee on Human Rights after the election of its chairpersons and vice-chairpersons moved immediately to business and held an exchange of views with the Commission on the EU Human Rights Policy instruments and in particular the programming of the European Initiative on Democracy and Human Rights (2005-2006). - On 22 September there was an exchange of views in the Subcommittee regarding the report of Mr. McMillan-Scott on the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights. - On 28 September 2004 the Subcommittee held an exchange of views with Commissioner Patten on the assessment of the Commission's activities in the field of human rights and the impact of the various instruments of the EU. Amongst other things the Subcommittee discussed the human rights dialogues with different countries as well as the EIDHR. - On 23 November the Subcommittee held an exchange of views with the Commission on the programming document of the EIDHR for 2005 to 2006. 2/14 DV/ 583150EN.doc - On 31 January 2005 the Subcommittee also held an in-depth exchange of views with the commission regarding the programming of the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights for the years 2005 to 2006. - On 5 September 2005 the Subcommittee held an exchange of views on the Implementation of the EIDHR with Mr. Richardson, Deputy Director of EuropeAid, the European Commission's Cooperation Office. On the same day, the subcommittee in the presence of a representative of the commission (RELEX) was presented with a specially commissioned study on the Financial instruments available to the European Union for its human rights activities in third countries with a special reference particularly the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights. An exchange of views followed. Other financial instruments: - On 22 September 2004 the Subcommittee had an in-depth discussion on a report where the main committee AFET was responsible which dealt with "Development cooperation: Democracy, the rule of law and human rights". The subject of the legal procedure was the extension of regulation 976/1999/EC. The Subcommittee also heard the views of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy on the Hague declaration "Enhancing the European profile in democracy assistance". Financial perspectives: In the context of the adoption of the new financial perspectives (2007-2013), the EP voted a resolution asking the Commission to set-up a specific instrument on human rights and democracy promotion. Though the Subcommittee is not directly involved in the negotiations with the Commission and Council, it has been following the discussions and giving input to it. A position paper by the Chairperson of the Subcommittee was published and distributed to the members. - On 27 January the Subcommittee held an exchange of views on the financing of human rights policies in view of the financial perspectives. During this meeting, the Subcommittee held an exchange of views on the aspect of the future financing of human rights policies within the area of the external relations budget by holding an exchange of views with the rapporteur on the financial perspectives for the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ms. De Keyser. EU guidelines in the human rights field: The EU has adopted five guidelines in the field of human rights promotion: protection of human rights defenders, prevention of torture, fight against death penalty, protection of children in armed conflicts and structured dialogue on human rights issues. The most recent guidelines are those for the protection of human rights defenders. They were adopted in 2004, under the Dutch Presidency. The implementation process was launched under the Luxemburg Presidency. Therefore, the Subcommittee has mainly focused on these guidelines during its first year of activity: - On 27 January 2005 there was an exchange of views on the outcome of the 6th EU discussion forum on human rights in The Hague which dealt with the guidelines for human 3/14 DV/ 583150EN.doc rights defenders, as well as a brief exchange of views on the plans to set up a fundamental rights agency. - On 16 June 2005 the Subcommittee held an exchange of view on the guidelines of the European Union for the protection of human rights defenders. During this exchange of views the Subcommittee received testimonies by representatives of the FIDH, the Commission for Justice and Peace (Colombia) as well as the Ingushetian movement "Dignity for Women" (Chechnya). - On 11 July, the Subcommittee organised a meeting with Hina Jilani, Special Representative of the Secretary General of the UN on human rights defenders. Dialogues on human rights and democracy: The EU holds structured dialogues on human rights and democracy with Iran and China. It also organises consultations on human rights and democracy with Russia. Parallel to that, the EU holds different Subcommittees on human rights and democratisation issues with third countries. The dialogues with Iran and China were evaluated by the Council on 17 November 2004. In the course of 2005, and in light of these evaluations, the Council reviewed the framework of its dialogue with Iran. - On 23 November 2004 the Subcommittee held a meeting with the Dutch presidency discussing the results of the human rights dialogues with Iran and China. - On 25 April 2005, the committee received the report of the chairperson of the Delegation of the European Parliament for relations with Iran Angelika Beer and the Delegation's mission to Iran from 15 to 18 April 2005. - On 16 June 2005 day the Subcommittee held an exchange of views with the Luxembourg presidency regarding the EU's human rights dialogue with China. - A report on an EU-China human rights seminar which had taken place on 20-21 June 2005 in Beijing was subsequently given to the Enlarged Bureau of the Subcommittee on 29 June 2005 by a member of the Human Rights Unit who attended this meeting. Parallel to that, the Subcommittee has continuously pleaded for the creation of sub- committees on human rights in particular in agreements with neighbouring countries.