Verklaring voorzitter EESC Sepi: " De rechten van de mens gelden voor alle volken en minderheden" (en)

CES/08/114

11 December 2008

Declaration by President Sepi: "Human rights are for all peoples and all minorities"

Today I have the pleasure of taking part in the conference entitled "The Roma, part of European Intercultural Dialogue", which is perfectly in line with my programme, where the protection of rights – for all cultures and minorities – is one of the priorities of my Presidency. The principle that underpins European integration is, in my opinion, equal of rights for all peoples and for all individuals.

In this context, I clearly want to link these messages to the celebration, held yesterday, 10 December, of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Looking back at these sixty years, we can evaluate how much this Declaration – adopted after the Second World War – has guided the history of international relations to give freedom to men and women and to make the rule of law and democracy prevail.

During these sixty years, the European Union was born and has developed. It now has its own Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is included in the Lisbon Treaty. The rights contained in this Charter make it a unique text at international level. It is the only document that includes both the rights set out in the Universal Declaration and fundamental social rights. This represents a big victory for civil society, which had called for civil, political and social rights to be brought together in this way, in line with changes in the way our societies think.

By explicitly including social rights, the Charter of Fundamental Rights goes beyond the Universal Declaration, and this is necessary in order to affirm that people's rights are 'collective rights' and not only 'individual rights'. Supporting this principle makes it possible to protect rights of all the peoples, the minorities, the weakest and the poorest: they are the ones most at risk from human rights violations.

Today we face an economic crisis unprecedented in its causes and in its consequences. We must therefore take a long, hard look at how our societies work.

On the eve of the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, which will allow the rights and freedoms contained in the Charter to be enshrined in European law, it is essential that those fundamental rights can guide us out of the crisis. We must keep in mind that these rights, far from hindering us, protect our societies against drifting dangerously, and in particular against the exclusion, caused by poverty, from all fundamental social rights.