Nobel Prize Pushes European Union to Face its Responsibilities

15/10/2012
Press release
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" The European Union should receive the Nobel prize as encouragement to go further in the field of peace and human rights, within Europe and in its foreign policy, said Souhayr Belhassen, President of FIDH.

Although progress has been made during the last 60 years, much remains to be done, and major changes are needed in this period of crisis. Faced with growing erosion of economic and social rights in Europe, the EU has been unable to provide responses hefty enough to meet the crisis. The EU response, which focuses mainly on budgetary restrictions, may increase extremism and, in the long run, threaten democracy on the continent.

Souhayr Belhassen stated: What we expect from the European Union today is strong regulations for the economic and financial players and significant progress in building up the fiscal and social framework of Europe."

The EU still has many areas of concern, especially the rights of migrants, the asylum seekers and the Romas. The cost of consolidating links among the EU member states has been serious violations of human rights at the outer borders of Europe where restrictive migratory policies have contributed to making Europe a fortress and causing human catastrophes at the borders and beyond.

As concerns the foreign policy, the European Union has developed many instruments and actions to promote human rights throughout the world, more specifically to protect human rights defenders, promote the abolition of the death penalty and support actions of NGOs devoted to humanitarian causes, development and the protection of human rights. Yet, economic interests often supersede ethical considerations, e.g. the incapacity of the EU to implement a sound human rights policy in China or the weakness of its position in the Israel-Palestine conflict. The EU also lacks imagination and audacity in its policy in the Arab region after the Arab revolutions. FIDH is appealing to the EU to establish a coherent policy that places human rights at the heart of all its policies: trade, development, migration, etc.

We are disappointed that the Nobel Committee decided to award the Nobel Prize to an institution rather than to an individual who works in the field and risks his life and liberty to defend the universal values of peace and human rights, said Souhayr Belhassen.

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