Leading NGO mauls EU on human rights record
The EU and its member states have been strongly criticised for their human rights policy record by leading NGO Human Rights Watch, saying the bloc has courted grave abusers such as Russia and China while "utterly failing" to adress US practices in the war on terror.
The Washington-based NGO said in an annual report published on Wednesday (18 November) that the EU "continued to punch well below its weight" on human rights.
Join EUobserver today
Get the EU news that really matters
Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.
Choose your plan
... or subscribe as a group
Already a member?
Human Rights Watch came into the European spotlight in November after it revealed details on the alleged existence of CIA jails in Europe, but its annual report contains criticism on EU human right policy failures worldwide.
The report highlights EU states' disregard for human rights in their dealings with Russia and China.
"The EU position on Russia in 2005 made the US defense of human rights seem vigorous," the report states, with the UK, France and Germany engaged in an "unseemly competition" to court Russian president Vladimir Putin.
An "embarrasingly positive" statement mentioning Chechnya was issued at the EU-Russia summit in October, while the EU failed to sponsor a resolution critical of Russia’s record in Chechnya at the UN Commission on Human Rights.
Similarly, France and Germany pressed for the ending of the EU arms embargo on China which had been imposed in protest of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre - with no Chinese concessions to clarify the events in return.
The EU also seems to "increasingly favor the status quo in Africa," the NGO writes.
While the bloc "did not hesitate to act against a pariah state such as president Robert Mugabe’s in Zimbabwe," other human rights abusers with which the EU maintains closer relationships such as Angola, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda were pardoned.
Meanwhile, the EU’s strategy to improve human rights in its neighbouring states through its flagship Neighbourhood Policy fell short of results as well, according to the report.
The EU has "rarely and never publicly" enforced human rights clauses in agreements with countries such as Egypt, the report said.
As for relations with the US, "the EU understandably was eager to repair the damage done by disagreements triggered by the invasion of Iraq, but its strategy seemed to include largely ignoring US rights transgressions."
"For most of the year, the EU collectively utterly failed to raise concerns about the US practice of "disappearing" terrorist suspects," Human Rights Watch wrote.
Positive exceptions to the poor EU record were also mentions by the NGO, such as the bloc's leading role in condemning Uzbekistan before the UN General Assembly.
Moreover, with regard to EU candidate member states, the report said "a transparent
process coupled with the ability of any single member to block progress for an aspiring state tended to raise the bar on human rights."
"Positive pressure for improvement was thus exerted, most notably on Turkey," Human Rights Watch added.