Human Rights and the EU 1

January brought the new edition of the World Report 2006 of Human Rights Watch.

From a European perspective, the 2006 report raises various issues of interest. As this blog is still empty and the questions interesting, I will raise them today and discuss them further in the next couple of days.

1) Amongst European Union member states, there are still countries involved in warfare activities in Iraq. The announcement of retreat of Italy is a good beginning, Britain, Poland, Denmark, etc still have to get out. This will have to be a focus of the PES, especially as Blair's Britain is the US main ally.

2) Through lack of leadership (as the Report argues) and silent agreement the EU countries help the US undermine the human rights system. This was no secret in the past, but the degree of cooperation revealed in 2005 was astounding. The role of the EU in third party countries has to be changed in various aspects in 2006.

3) Moreover, the development in security laws has to be agressively challenged. Extradition to torturing countries, as recently Britain tried to legally establish has to be prevented, and detention without habeas corpus strongly fought.

So, obviously a lot hot topics to be found in the report. Let's dive into that in the next couple of days.

Human Rights Watch - World Report 2006