Human Rights should be put at the heart of EU foreign policy

sean43 · 15-11-2006, 01:49 PM

Got a debate coming up for the European Youth Parliament. This isnt my motion, but we are free to make points of information. Any thoughts?

SponPlague · 15-11-2006, 02:09 PM

Try bringing in the idea that rights should require responsibilities, too?

eublues · 15-11-2006, 02:10 PM

If human rights were at the heart of any aspect of the EU we would have been asked if we agreed to our sovereignty being given away.

Aardvark · 15-11-2006, 08:06 PM

Improbably, or perhaps at last, some Tories are entering the rights and responsibilities debate with serious arguments put forward by Jonathan Fisher QC (who I thought was a liberal wet when we were doing the Bar finals).

See: http://www.conservativeliberty.org.uk/

There is a downloadable document that might give some ideas.

sean43 · 16-11-2006, 02:00 PM

Im just looking at wikipedia, I see Bosnia and Serbia have poor human rights records but I need some actual proof. Anyone know where I will get it from?

My argument is that, the EU claims to mantain high human rights standards when in reality certain states dont. I am trying to say that they should look at their own situation, before criticising human rights records in Iraq (one of the oppositions main points)

komerad · 16-11-2006, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sean43

Im just looking at wikipedia, I see Bosnia and Serbia have poor human rights records but I need some actual proof. Anyone know where I will get it from?
My argument is that, the EU claims to mantain high human rights standards when in reality certain states dont. I am trying to say that they should look at their own situation, before criticising human rights records in Iraq (one of the oppositions main points)

But Bosnia- Herzegovina & Serbia are not in the EU.

One Londoner · 16-11-2006, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sean43

Im just looking at wikipedia, I see Bosnia and Serbia have poor human rights records but I need some actual proof. Anyone know where I will get it from?

Here's a useful test:

Try standing outside the country's national parliament and reading out a list of names of its soldiers killed on active service. If you get arrested, that country has a human rights problem. :twisted:

Aardvark · 17-11-2006, 09:42 PM

Latvia and Estonia have substantial ethnic Russian minorities from their days as Soviet occupied satellite states. They don't allow them to vote unless they are naturalised and there are issues with Russian language education. The people in Latvia are "non-citizens" and don't properly belong to any country; they are just short of 20% of the population.

I wouldn't be Roma in Slovakia; in fact look up Roma issues in the EU.

15-11-2006, 01:49 PM	#1 (permalink)
sean43 Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 161	Human Rights should be put at the heart of EU foreign policy Got a debate coming up for the European Youth Parliament. This isnt my motion, but we are free to make points of information. Any thoughts?

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15-11-2006, 02:09 PM	#2 (permalink)
SponPlague Uber Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Zurich Posts: 3,123	Try bringing in the idea that rights should require responsibilities, too?

15-11-2006, 02:10 PM	#3 (permalink)
eublues Uber Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 3,122	If human rights were at the heart of any aspect of the EU we would have been asked if we agreed to our sovereignty being given away.

15-11-2006, 08:06 PM	#4 (permalink)
Aardvark Moderator Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Oxonia Posts: 3,973	Improbably, or perhaps at last, some Tories are entering the rights and responsibilities debate with serious arguments put forward by Jonathan Fisher QC (who I thought was a liberal wet when we were doing the Bar finals). See: http://www.conservativeliberty.org.uk/ There is a downloadable document that might give some ideas.

16-11-2006, 02:00 PM	#5 (permalink)
sean43 Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 161	Im just looking at wikipedia, I see Bosnia and Serbia have poor human rights records but I need some actual proof. Anyone know where I will get it from? My argument is that, the EU claims to mantain high human rights standards when in reality certain states dont. I am trying to say that they should look at their own situation, before criticising human rights records in Iraq (one of the oppositions main points)

17-11-2006, 09:42 PM	#8 (permalink)
Aardvark Moderator Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Oxonia Posts: 3,973	Latvia and Estonia have substantial ethnic Russian minorities from their days as Soviet occupied satellite states. They don't allow them to vote unless they are naturalised and there are issues with Russian language education. The people in Latvia are "non-citizens" and don't properly belong to any country; they are just short of 20% of the population. I wouldn't be Roma in Slovakia; in fact look up Roma issues in the EU.