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EP/UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

On 11 March, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the next session of the Human Rights Commission in Geneva. The resolution asks the Council of Europe and the European Commission for concrete initiatives on the issue of human rights, on the institution of a universal moratorium on capital punishment and on the ratification of the Charter of the Permanent Criminal Court. On this occasion, the Secretary of the Radical Party issued the following press release:

"For once, the EP has succeeded in avoiding the dangers of pious vows and of rhetorical reflections and in focusing its determination on concrete initiatives. In particular, it has asked to Council and the Member States to commit themselves on three issues of prime importance in the promotion of the Rule of Law and basic freedoms at the international level.

1. Submission and sponsorship of a resolution on the constant and systematic violations of human rights in the People's Republic of China

2. Submission and sponsorship of a resolution on the institution of a universal moratorium on capital punishment, the last stage before the June placement of the issue of the institution of the universal moratorium on the agenda of the next General Assembly of the United Nations

3. Submission and sponsorship of a resolution requesting all Member States of the International Community to sign and/or ratify the Charter of the International Criminal Court".

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EP/INDIA PARTNERSHIP -- EU/INDIA PARTNERSHIP

ON 11 March, the EP adopted a Report by Anne André Léonard calling for an enhanced partnership between the European Union and India. The report, pointing out the fact that India is one of the "rare examples of a democratic country in the region" and that it "represents a factor of prime importance for stability and for the promotion of democratic development for the entire Asian continent", recognizes "that a considerable potential exists for bilateral relations at all levels between the European Union and India, by virtue of the Indian values of democracy, of cultural pluralism and of a resolute entrepreneurial spirit"; considers "that India must become a preferential partner of the European Union and of its Member States, from a political standpoint as well as from an economic standpoint"; and "therefore invites the Union to make the deepening of its relations with India a priority of the common foreign and security policy".

Declaration by Olivier Dupuis, Secretary of the Radical Party and European Representative:

"Between, on the one hand, a billion citizens, and on the other, a billion two hundred million subjects or laogai hostages; between a market economy founded on the Rule of Law and ever more open to the world and an economy until now essentially controlled by the Communist bureaucracy -- or by the army; between a system based on democratically elected institutions and a system governed by an aristocratic Communist caste answerable to no one; between a society free to express itself, to vote, to produce and to move freely, and a system that oppresses individuals and peoples -- with regard to all these choices, the EP has finally begun to make hard decisions, putting in issue the assurances -- not totally bereft of foundation -- of the Britons and of the other admirers of Beijing's red carpets, and proposing, even if still too timidly, that strategic aim be taken at democratic Asia and at Market Economy Asia, instead of continuing to offer unconditional support for the dictatorial, imperialist and bureaucratic

Asia -- the Asia of the laogai and of show trials.

[Published by DEMOCRACY IN CHINA/FREEDOM FOR TIBET ! -Issue 75, March 20, 1999 (Year IV)]