Somatic
03-03-07, 20:30
VIENNA — Crowning four years of negotiations, the EU launched on Thursday, March 1, a new agency to fight burgeoning racism and intolerance and prevent any member-state from becoming a haven for hate mongers.
"We must become a moral entity, to protect human beings themselves," Franco Frattini, the EU commissioner for justice, freedom and security was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights will help analyze disparate data on xenophobia, harmonize legislation and law enforcement and raise public awareness by involving grassroots civic groups.
"This means trying to harmonize a message of firmness across Europe, so we will not allow in some members safe havens for people who incite to hatred with flags, symbols," said Frattini.
"That's why we need a more comprehensive approach."
Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer said the agency will have an advisory duty so that "fundamental rights do not suffer because of tensions caused by the fight against terrorism."
The nascent body, replacing the Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, will be tasked with fighting burgeoning Islamophobia and racism in the 27-nation bloc.
It will also target practices such as female genital mutilation and forced marriages among new immigrants.
Powerless
But human rights groups criticized the new body for having limited powers to fight racism.
Amnesty International said that the agency's mandate was too limited to achieve much.
"The reluctance of member states to address human rights at home, fully exposed during discussions over the agency's scope of action, resulted in a minimalist mandate contrasting sharply with the serious scale and nature of human rights problems in the EU," Amnesty said in a statement.
The London-based group said that the new body would be powerless to seek redress against excessive police force used on immigrants, human trafficking and disproportionate detention of asylum seekers.
The agency will have limited powers and lack the authority to file suits against member-states or examine individual complaints.
It will not also intervene in matters of judicial and police cooperation between states -- arguably the area in which it could have done the most work -- following strong opposition from Britain and Germany especially.
Critics have also said the agency will duplicate work being done by the Council of Europe and the UN.
"The Fundamental Rights Agency will take £20m (30m euros) of taxpayers' money and use it to advance a partisan agenda with little accountability to anyone," said British MEP Syed Kamall.
"Frankly, we can all think of better things to spend taxpayers' money on. While we do want to see greater equality, another expensive agency is not the answer."
Human rights organizations have heavily criticized the EU for failing to demand more accountability on the part of member states, such as in the matter of secret CIA flights to Europe.
Amnesty has accused European countries of being partners in crime in the US rendition of terror suspects to countries where they were tortured.
It said Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Turkey, Macedonia and Bosnia-Hercegovina allowed airports and airspace on their territory to be used, participated in the arrest or abduction of people and handed them over to US authorities.
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1172571500608&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout
"We must become a moral entity, to protect human beings themselves," Franco Frattini, the EU commissioner for justice, freedom and security was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights will help analyze disparate data on xenophobia, harmonize legislation and law enforcement and raise public awareness by involving grassroots civic groups.
"This means trying to harmonize a message of firmness across Europe, so we will not allow in some members safe havens for people who incite to hatred with flags, symbols," said Frattini.
"That's why we need a more comprehensive approach."
Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer said the agency will have an advisory duty so that "fundamental rights do not suffer because of tensions caused by the fight against terrorism."
The nascent body, replacing the Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, will be tasked with fighting burgeoning Islamophobia and racism in the 27-nation bloc.
It will also target practices such as female genital mutilation and forced marriages among new immigrants.
Powerless
But human rights groups criticized the new body for having limited powers to fight racism.
Amnesty International said that the agency's mandate was too limited to achieve much.
"The reluctance of member states to address human rights at home, fully exposed during discussions over the agency's scope of action, resulted in a minimalist mandate contrasting sharply with the serious scale and nature of human rights problems in the EU," Amnesty said in a statement.
The London-based group said that the new body would be powerless to seek redress against excessive police force used on immigrants, human trafficking and disproportionate detention of asylum seekers.
The agency will have limited powers and lack the authority to file suits against member-states or examine individual complaints.
It will not also intervene in matters of judicial and police cooperation between states -- arguably the area in which it could have done the most work -- following strong opposition from Britain and Germany especially.
Critics have also said the agency will duplicate work being done by the Council of Europe and the UN.
"The Fundamental Rights Agency will take £20m (30m euros) of taxpayers' money and use it to advance a partisan agenda with little accountability to anyone," said British MEP Syed Kamall.
"Frankly, we can all think of better things to spend taxpayers' money on. While we do want to see greater equality, another expensive agency is not the answer."
Human rights organizations have heavily criticized the EU for failing to demand more accountability on the part of member states, such as in the matter of secret CIA flights to Europe.
Amnesty has accused European countries of being partners in crime in the US rendition of terror suspects to countries where they were tortured.
It said Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Turkey, Macedonia and Bosnia-Hercegovina allowed airports and airspace on their territory to be used, participated in the arrest or abduction of people and handed them over to US authorities.
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1172571500608&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout