Amnesty International's Memorandum

Proposal for a strengthened protection of human rights by the European Union in the context of the
INTERGOVERNMENTAL CONFERENCE 1996


September 13th 1996
Executive Summary
Appalling human rights catastrophes have shocked the world since the Treaty on European Union entered into force in November 1993. In particular, in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda thousands of men, women and children have been tortured, killed or "disappeared". The role of the European Union, particularly in respect of the former Yugoslavia, has been the subject of intense scrutiny. These recent developments have called into question the effectiveness of the Treaty on European Union in securing and promoting human rights protection by the European Union in the international community.

Respect for human rights within the European Union is also inadequate. The restrictive measures taken by the Member States of the Union in the context of harmonising their asylum policies have severely limited the possibilities for asylum seekers to reach the EU's borders. When they do, all too often recommendations adopted in the EU context allow that they be sent back to a state through which they passed en route or indeed to their country without adequate or satisfactory procedural guarantees. These Union policies have been adopted notwithstanding criticism from non-governmental organisations and in some cases the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) itself.

Amnesty International calls upon the Member States of the European Union to take the opportunity of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) to place the respect for and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the heart of the legal basis of the Union. The European Union's foundation as primarily a trade agreement has deprived it of a clear and coherent human rights basis. As the spheres of activity of the Union have now embraced ever increasing and diverse aspects of human endeavour, including foreign policy, it is time for this defect to be remedied. Amnesty International is concerned about the protection of human rights in practice over and above paper guarantees. In the context of the structural changes to the Union under consideration in the Intergovernmental Conference, Amnesty International considers that the priority is not to add new declarations in favour of human rights, but rather to ensure that the existing ones are put into practice, through providing new instruments within the European Union framework with sufficient power and resources to improve human rights protection in all spheres of Union activity. Of course, the Treaty is not the place for an extensive description of these new tools , but a specific reference in the Treaty would, according to Amnesty, be an important step towards ensuring that these tools will be implemented in the near future in the EU context.

Amnesty International has identified four main topics which should be under consideration during the IGC and which have direct relevance to its concerns. For each of these topics, Amnesty International puts forward concrete recommendations. These are as follows:


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