Intervention conference on human rights diplomacy
Gelegenheid: Intervention conference on human rights diplomacySTATEMENT ARJAN HAMBURGER, HUMAN RIGHTS AMBASSADOR OF THE NETHERLANDS, AT THE CONFERENCE ON HUMAN RIGHTS DIPLOMACY, FUNDACION TRES CULTURAS, SEVILLA , 6 – 8 FEBRUARY 2008
Buenas tardes, senoras y senores,
Muchas gracias por invitarme a participar con ustedes en esta conferencia.
Yo no hablo Espanol , pero por suerte si entiendo bien los titulares de periodicos espanoles. El Pais de ayer por ejemplo, muestra que quizas la mitad de los titulares tienen que ver directamente o indirectamente con los derechos humanos.
Asi los derechos humanos forman elementos esenciales para nuestras vidas cotidianas y para todos los seres humanos en el mundo entero.
I will now continue en Ingles. I will deviate somewhat from the subject allocated to me and also address Dutch human rights policy and some of the challenges that we face.
*************
It is because of the central position of human rights in everyone’s life that they are also an essential element in Dutch foreign policy.
That is not only a matter of morality, of concern or of anger about the terrible things that systematically happen to individual people and to groups everyday, in many places of the world ; it is also a matter of common sense and realism : promotion and protection of human rights promote stability and security and help social and economic development. That is a global interest. Also to citizens of the Netherlands, of Spain, of Europe.
Our Foreign Minister recently submitted his human rights strategy to the Dutch Parliament. The strategy focuses on a number of areas of special emphasis, and contains one hundred recommendations. Currently, we are elaborating a concrete action plan on implementing those 100 recommendations. In a few weeks, our Parliament will debate both the strategy and the action plan.
An English translation of the strategy will soon be available on our website, but I will give you, in a nutshell, some of its main elements.
The strategy’s main points of departure are the follwoing:
- fundamental human rights, as laid down in the Universal Declaration, are applicable to everyone, always, everywhere. They form our collective standards of human dignity. Tradition, culture or religion can never be an excuse to violate these fundamental rights. Universality is not the same as uniformity : diversity is welcome and needed, but all countries have to apply the basic rules of the game. Torture or violence against women, for instance, can never be whitewashed with the argument of local, specific circumstances.
- human rights have to be integrated with the other components of our foreign policy, such as our security policy (think of human rights in relation to the fight against terrorism), our involvement in peacekeeping and conflict prevention, our support to democracy and rule of law, our trade policy, and our contribution to development. They are interlinked and mutually supportive.
- focus on what is effective and do-able, what can make a difference on the ground. We decide on a case by case basis what action to take. Sometimes quiet diplomacy, sometimes more explicit responses, often a mix of dialogue and cooperation programmes (for instance capacity building), sometimes harsher measures through the European Union such as sanctions if a government does not care about human rights (such as the military regime in Burma). At the same time change for the better will, above all, have to come from within a country, and for that reason we do not only dialogue with the authorities, but also support civil society, human rights defenders, and the like.
The areas of special, additional emphasis in our new strategy are :
- intensifying the fight to abolish the death penalty. The recent adoption of a moratorium by the General Assembly was an essential step in that direction ; and the fight against torture.
2. promotion of the individual freedom of religion (including the freedom to change religion or not to have one) and the protection of religious minorities. This has become all the more important since some countries or groups of countries increasingly focus on protection of religions as such (and in particular on prohibiting defamation) instead of protecting the fundamental freedom of individual human beings.
One worrisome example is Iran where a formal law is in preparation to automatically impose the death penalty on those who leave their Islamic belief.
- promoting the position of women in areas such as equal rights, discrimination, and stopping violence against women.
- protecting children in areas such as violence against children, the use of child soldiers, fighting against child labour, or stopping death penalties for minors.
- ending discrimination of homosexuals, and in particular decriminalising homosexuality.
In a strategy you make choices. And these are areas where we believe The Netherlands should and can make an extra effort.
These actions will complement our ongoing involvement in areas such as protecting the freedom of expression, supporting democracy and rule of law, respecting human rights in the fight against terrorism, fighting impunity (for instance through the ICC, based in The Hague), helping fragile states, or promoting corporate social responsibility.
Like my European colleagues present here, we work as much as we can through the European Union. With 27, we have more impact than alone. In many instances it works well : see the EU initiatives on the death penalty resolution or the resolution on religious intolerance in the UN’s General Assembly.
The EU has developed a very useful toolbox of instruments to promote and defend human rights. Mrs.Kionka has already spoken on that.
Sometimes , however, the EU is too slow and inward looking in defining its position in international negotiations and then loses influence and credibility .There is room for improvement. Indeed, as suggested this morning, more intensive contacts by the EU or by its individual member states with more or less likeminded countries from other regions would be crucial to move things forward.
We also suggest that a European mechanism is created to scrutinise European policy and legislation against international human rights standards.
*************
While on one hand the Netherlands and the EU have intensified their human rights actions, and while human rights problems have become more visible over the years, we face on the other hand increasing difficulties and sometimes more obstruction then a few years ago. The events of 9/11 and subsequent developments have complicated relations. We have to do a better job in analyzing and addressing those difficulties than we have done so far.
Let me mention what are some of the main complications :
- a growing, vocal group of governments, in particular from Asia and the Middle East, increasingly objects to the concept of universality of fundamental human rights, wrongly claiming that this is a western concept. They put human rights exclusively in their own specific religious, or cultural, or traditional, or political domestic context. We see this as a dangerous development which undermines universal respect for fundamental human rights worldwide. The Alliance of Civilisations, initiated by Spain and Turkey, or an institution such as Tres Culturas can in our view play a positive role in discussing these issues and in helping to diffuse the current polarisation.
- several countries, such as China, give priority to the rights of the collectivity above the rights of individuals. Individual rights – in particular civil and political rights - are often considered by them as something of developed societies that have achieved a certain standard of living. We have to be more convincing that the two – collective rights and individual rights – need not be mutually exclusive.
- some countries accuse western countries of selectivity and of applying double standards : we focus on “easy targets”, such as Birma or Sudan or Zimbabwe, and we keep silent in cases such as Saudi Arabia, Russia or the USA. The argument is mostly used by the worst human rights violators that often are not open to dialogue and cooperation. In fact, we do discuss human rights issues with allies and partners, but usually in a less vocal way.
By the way, a striking example of selectivity is the holding of frequent special sessions of the Human Rights Council on human rights abuses by Israel, while it is impossible or much more difficult to hold such meetings on gross violations by countries as Iran, Zimbabwe, Sudan or Sri Lanka.
- and finally : some countries oppress minority population groups – sometimes religious minority groups – under the pretext of fighting terrorism. China, Russia, Uzbekistan provide some examples.
These are worrisome trends and I hope this conference will help us in addressing these challenges.
*************
This afternoon’s Round Table also addresses the link between human rights (or the lack thereof) and social and economic development (or the lack thereof). So let me say a few words on that :
The links between poverty and discrimination and human rights violations are widely recognized. Many poverty issues are in essence human rights issues. For instance, gender inequality is an obstacle to realize maternal health, one of the areas of the Millennium Development Goals.
Several conventions (such as the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, or the Convention on the Elimination and Discrimination against Women) provide powerful instruments to promote social justice and inclusive development.
There are still negotiations on an optional protocol to the Covenant on ESC which would provide for a complaints procedure, comparable to the one under the Covenant for Civil and Political Rights. It is a sensitive issue, since it can interfere with national policy choices and budget implications.
Some governments are hesitant, but courts can catalyze action :
One interesting example thereof is India, where the Supreme Court issued a declaration that the right to education derived from the right to life, enshrined in the Indian Constitution. The Indian Parliament discussed this declaration and adopted the Supreme Court’s view.
Although our new strategy focuses primarily on civil and political rights, the Netherlands pays as much attention to social and economic rights : they are completely interrelated.
All of us (developing and developed countries alike) have to invest heavily in decent housing, in decent health, in decent work and in decent salaries. We make a lot of efforts to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals and in fact the Netherlands is one of the very few countries that has honoured, since many decades, the international target of 0.7 percent of GDP d evoted to development assistance. And we are happy to see how much Spain has increased its assistance over the past years.
*************
Let me finish by saying a few words on human rights in The Netherlands. We are not a human rights violator ; we usually rank pretty high on freedom indexes, or human development indexes, or low corruption indexes ; but there is certainly still a lot of work to do at home as well, for instance in such areas as immigration and asylum, integration of migrants, violence against women, gender balance, or children’s rights.
You have to perform at home if you want to be credible abroad. We are currently preparing, with a contribution of civil society, for the periodic review by the Human Rights Council in April. We recognize that we can step up our own efforts. I am convinced that this review will be an incentive to a variety of institutions, including government departments. Respect for human rights can never be taken for granted. Nowhere.
*************
Well, I have touched upon only a few points of the very vast, deep, and complex area of promoting and protecting human rights.
We all, and governments in particular bear a heavy responsibility to protect human rights. At home and abroad.” States have to be the servants of their people, and not the other way round”, as former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.
Obviamento, estoy dispuesto a discutir qualquier tema con ustedes y a contestar todas sus preguntas.
Muchas gracias.