A better buttress for human rights

Amnesty International’s new secretary-general warns that the position of human rights in the EU’s new diplomatic corps is precarious.

The European Union ought to continue to be one of the world’s most influential defenders of human rights. But to maintain this role it will have to act with confidence, agility and authority, no small challenge for a union of 27 nation states.

In theory, the rights to freedom of speech and association, immunity from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, the exemption from torture or misogynistic violence, are espoused by many nations. Unfortunately, the upholding of human rights, even among countries which were erstwhile bastions of the cause, has faltered for much of the past decade.

The EU faces an important opportunity to exercise its international clout and moral authority: it is now busy recasting the structures through which it engages with the wider world. This is surely a key moment when the promotion of human rights can be plumbed into the new architecture. But this chance will vanish if we fumble it.

How, then, ought the EU to enhance its moral stature? It will need political commitment at the highest level to put human rights at the heart of foreign and domestic policy. This process should largely be driven by the new diplomatic corps, the European External Action Service (EEAS), which will transmit EU policies to every capital.

It is easy for us to demand that this new body should embody the very best practices and be fully transparent. But it will be tougher to ensure that the EEAS actually has the mechanisms to turn rhetoric into reality. We need to be able to hold it to account for delivering on its promises. And to be a true force for good, it must have a strong human-rights directorate. Unfortunately, this key element still looks precarious, owing to resistance from some prominent EU decision-makers. The EEAS’s human-rights function must run hand-in-hand with players outside the EU institutions’ inner circle, not least civil society. Encouraging progress in this direction might still be stymied. There is also a real risk that the mooted human-rights unit will be too small to be more than a fig leaf. In fact, where in the past each of the three institutions had a human-rights unit, there will now be just one body – and it is currently in danger of being a weakling. To boost the directorate’s contribution, human-rights staff ought to be part of2 all EEAS decision-making, and the Service should appoint a prominent human-rights actor to its senior leadership. It is, of course, imperative that all EU missions abroad are staffed by diplomats well versed in human rights – something that has been true only very patchily across European Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament.

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One of Europe’s greatest hidden assets is its power to attract migrants from around the world, not least because it offers them the promise (albeit too often illusory) of a life of dignity and fundamental rights. The continent has been enriched by the influx of people as diverse as Filipinos, Somalis and Surinamese. Too often, migrants fleeing chaos fall victim to racist violence and nationalistic disdain, egged on by populist politicians. Instead of dismissing migrants as a ‘problem’, the EU ought to take a more positive attitude and ensure that there is proper democratic and humanitarian oversight of the immigration process. We need to be clearer about how Europe’s borders are governed, including the joint operations by EU countries through the borders agency, Frontex. Too often the EU avoids its obligation to analyse each migrant’s personal circumstances by preventing migrants from even reaching the European coast.

So much for the EU’s external relations. I ought not, in closing, to overlook the inner Union and how human rights are protected there. I could focus on Roma discrimination or the dearth of counter-terrorism accountability. But let me target an issue of particular importance for the EU which consequently has a major influence on its neighbours: for over two years the Council of Ministers has signally failed to close a legal gap in its otherwise laudable anti-discrimination laws by extending them to those groups which are not currently offered that degree of protection. Talks on the anti-discrimination directive have wobbled in the face of fierce German opposition and no coalition of EU states has sponsored the directive. Unless it fills the legal gap in existing EU law, Europe will effectively be admitting that it is not taking discrimination seriously, and will allow it to persist with impunity.

Salil Shetty is the secretary-general of Amnesty International.