The European Parliament,

- having regard to the motions for resolutions by:

(a) Mr Staes on human rights in Guatemala (B3-0003/90),

(b) Mr Arbeloa Muru and Mr Ramírez Heredia on a world-wide amnesty for prisoners of conscience (B3-0062/90),

(c) Mr Glinne on child prostitution (B3-0066/90),

(d) Mr David on the plight of children in the third world (B3-0213/90),

(e) Mr Arbeloa Muru on behalf of the Socialist Group on secret executions in Iraq (B3-0497/90),

(f) Mr Newens and others on human rights abuses in Iran (B3-0655/90),

(g) Mr Newens and others on assassination attempts against Iranian refugees (B3-1101/90),

(h) Mrs Fontaine on involvement of children in armed conflicts (B3-1479/90),

(i) Mr Arbeloa Muru on measures against torture, violent deaths and disappearances (B3-0033/91),

- having regard to its resolution on human rights in the world and Community policy on human rights of 17 May 1983OJ C161, 20.6.1983, p.58,

- having regard to its resolution on human rights in the world and Community policy on human rights of 22 May 1984OJ C172, 2.7.1984, p.36,

- having regard to its resolution on human rights in the world and Community policy on human rights of 22 October 1985OJ C343, 31.12.1985, p.29,

- having regard to its resolution on human rights in the world and Community policy on human rights of 12 March 1987OJ C99, 13.4.1987, p.157,

- having regard to its resolution on human rights in the world and Community policy on human rights of 18 January 1989OJ C47, 27.2.1989, p.61,

- having regard to the report of the Political Affairs Committee and the opinions of the Committee on Development and Cooperation and the Committee on Youth, Culture, Education, the Media and Sport (Doc. ),

A. whereas the first directly-elected European Parliament undertook to draw up an annual report on human rights in the world and Community human rights policy,

B. whereas a commitment to democratic principles of government and to the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms under the rule of law is a prerequisite for membership of the European Community,

C. whereas the Community reaffirmed this commitment in the joint inter-institutional Declaration of 5 April 1977, the Declaration on Human Rights adopted by the Foreign Ministers of the Twelve on 21 July 1986 and the preamble of the Single European Act which provides that the Member States and institutions of the EEC are determined to work together to promote democracy on the basis of the fundamental rights recognized in the constitutions and laws of the Member States, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the European Social Charter,

D. whereas, in the period under review, there were references to human rights in the conclusions of the Dublin European Council (June 1990) on human rights and good governance in Africa and of the Rome European Council (December 1990) on the promotion of democracy and human rights in external relations, and in the conclusions of the Council meeting of 19 December 1990 on a restructured Mediterranean policy, containing a Declaration on observance of human rights and the fostering of democratic values,

E. whereas the European Community's commitment to human rights is deemed also to extend to the protection of human rights outside the CommunitySince there is no direct access by Community representatives to the legal systems of third countries, human rights violations outside the Community fall within the terms of reference of Parliament's Political Affairs Committee, the Committee of Parliament which is responsible for foreign affairs, whereas violations within the Community which could find redress under the domestic law of the Member States, Community law and the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, come within the terms of reference of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights and the Committee on Petitions., and the Community's highest bodies have stated that expressions of concern about human rights violations in third countries cannot be considered unjustified interference in the domestic affairs of a third country, and whereas the countries of the European Community

, both individually and collectively, have an obligation to seek the enforcement of international human rights law,

F. whereas human rights are universal, not dependent on particular systems of law or government, and governments have a duty to promote them beyond as well as inside their own frontiers,

G. whereas there has been a significant evolution in the international community's perception of its obligation to intervene, by various means, wherever there are grave violations of human rights, reflected most recently in UN Security Council Resolution 688 of 5 April 1991,

H. whereas Community action to further human rights in third countries is inspired by the Community's own legal system, based on the Treaties, the case law of the Court of Justice, Community legislation, the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and Member States' constitutions and laws,

I. whereas, if human rights abuses occur in the countries of the European Community, then there normally exist instruments of redress under due process of law (including Community law which now incorporates certain conventional human rights such as freedom of association and freedom of expression), and where such instruments prove inadequate, there are available, in principle, mechanisms which can rectify abuse,

J. whereas despite the competence assumed by the Community in human rights matters, the Community is not endowed in the Treaties with a specific legal mandate in this sphere, and has not adhered to the European Convention on Human Rights, despite calls by Parliament that it should do so,

K. whereas in the forthcoming review of the provisions of European Political CooperationAs provided for in Title III of the Single European Act, and in the new provisions that may result from the Inter-governmental Conference on Political Union, there should be explicit reference to the Community's obligation to promote and protect human rights,

L. whereas regional systems of human rights protection in different parts of the world are becoming increasingly important, and the significance of the 'human dimension' must also emerge as a fundamental aspect of the institutional architecture of the new wider Europe,

M. whereas in Parliament's annual reports particular emphasis is given to three fundamental rights - the right to life, the right to respect for the physical and moral integrity of the person, and the right to a fair trial by an independent court - while at the same time recognising that all human rights, whether political and civil, or economic, social and cultural, are indivisible and intertwined,

N. whereas neither lack of social and economic development nor any persuasion or ideology may serve as a justification for the denial of civil and political rights, nor persuasions and ideologies as justification for the denial of social rights or the right to development, and the European Community must be cautious about holding itself up as a model and in pursuing human rights issues with third countries should always take account of cultural relativity and 'context',

O. whereas there are currently severe threats to human rights within the European Community, not least as a result of the resurgence of intolerance and racism which led to the adoption on 11 June 1986 of the 'Evrigenis' Declaration against racism and xenophobiaOJ No. C 176, 14.7.1986, p. 62 and a committee of inquiry of Parliament in 1990 drew up a reportFindings of the Committee of Inquiry into Racism and Xenophobia and resolutions of 10 October 1990 (OJ No. C 284, 12.11.1990, p. 57) which called for further concrete measures to be taken,

P. whereas democratic life within the Community is still threatened by terrorism which, during the period under consideration, has been responsible for murders and other criminal acts in various Member States, particularly in Spain, Greece, the Federal Republic of Germany, France and the United Kingdom, sometimes with the support of political forces which are protected by democratic legality,

Q. whereas human rights issues within the European Community such as right of asylum and treatment of refugees, are among the major political issues before the Community, many aspects of which are not covered by the Geneva Conventions of 1951 and whereas in the light of the completion of the internal market in 1992 the EC must seek solutions at Community level which supplement national and international measures,

R. whereas

- there has been considerable worldwide growth in the recognition of human rights;

- a Community based on democracy and the rule of law has worldwide responsibilities because of these principles which it should also incorporate in its foreign policy;

- the European Parliament, as intermediary for human rights concerns from the whole world, must be open to these concerns, to examine them for accuracy to the best of its ability and then to support them through its resolutions,

S. whereas Community citizens rightly demand full respect for human rights on the part of all the Member States and want respect for human rights on the part of third countries to be a fundamental parameter for Community relations with such countries,

T. whereas pluralism and democracy help to protect human rights and increasing numbers of people are insisting on their human rights and becoming aware of their individual rights,

U. whereas human rights flourish best in a situation of democratic stability and it is the duty of Community bodies, and in particular its Parliament, to encourage the evolution of consititutional freedom, democracy and political pluralism,

V. whereas in many more, though not yet all countries, governments have become increasingly sensitive to outside opinion and to representations about their human rights records,

W. whereas it is recognised that action in favour of human rights is a legitimate international activity which cannot be construed as improper interference in the internal affairs of third countries,

X. whereas while international pressure may not always work, it is a proven fact that even governments which violate human rights are sensitive to it and it is moreover a political prisoner's only protection and many former detainees have attested that words can have power and documents be persuasive,

Y. whereas, however, the European Community, no less than other members of the international community, has been 'selective' in its approach and its human rights policies have on occasion been determined by strategic and geopolitical and commercial considerations,

Z. whereas in recent years human rights have been given greater emphasis in the foreign policy of the Community and its Member States and whereas, therefore, clear guidelines should be developed,

AA. whereas in a world which is moving closer together, peace can be threatened when human rights violations increase in places where order breaks down and violence and desolution dominate; whereas it is not possible for the Community to create stable conditions without a strict observance of human rights,

1. Reaffirms the undertakings, statements of principle and policy proposals made in its previous human rights reports;

2. Believes that the period under review (1989 and 1990) gave rise to hope that the international community might make significant advances towards achieving greater respect for human rights, not least as a result of the ending of the 'cold war' and the prospects of an enhanced and more effective role for the United Nations;

3. Regrets, however, that these hopes and aspirations, inspired by great changes in a number of individual countries, most notably in Central and Eastern Europe, do not permit the conclusion that worldwide the degree of suffering as a result of human rights abuses is on a significantly lesser scale;

4. Deplores that in addition to war and civil conflict, with the gross abuses that result from them, the majority of governments around the world practise or connive in various forms of human rights abuse and that in a significant number of countries, including those closely associated with the European Community, internationally recognized human rights are flagrantly and systematically abused by means of torture or other violations of the right to life and human dignity;

5. Notes that the basic principles of international legilsation dealing with the safeguarding of human rights are most commonly violated in situations of armed conflict, including, inter alia, by summary executions of prisoners, acts of individual or collective terrorism, torture and execution of hostages and captives, indiscriminate bombings, and use of banned weapons;

6. Believes, in this connection, that gross violations of the Geneva Conventions are more frequent than ever, and notes that internationally reputed humanitarian organisations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross consider that the 1980s saw an escalation of violence around the world, particularly in internal conflicts not clearly covered by international humanitarian law;

7. Recalls with sadness that during the last 45 years some 105 armed conflicts have taken place, almost all of them in the third world, and that in recent years civil war and inter- ethnic conflict in particular have become more widespread, and that during the 1980s there was a sharp rise in the number of conflicts - international, internal or mixed - with many of these now of prolonged duration, and that more than 80% of the victims of contemporary conflicts are civilians, the overwhelming majority of them women and children;

8. Notes further that 13 wars are still continuing in Africa, with the longest lasting conflict in Eritrea having continued for almost 30 years, and the conflict in Mozambique also of protracted duration;

9. Is deeply concerned that the use of mustard gas by Iraq against Iran and possibly also the use of cyanide gas and nerve agents, has contravened an internationally recognized rule and notes that as many as 20 countries are now believed to possess chemical weapons or the capability to use them in violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol;

10. Regrets that the wave of liberalisation which swept across the world during the period under review has had no significant effect on many countries; that with significant exceptions such as the freeing of the world's best-known political prisoner, Nelson Mandela, thousands of long-term political prisoners still remain incarcerated in various countries, and in some cases have been in detention for more than two decades, as in Cuba, Indonesia, Malawi, Syria and Morocco; that between 40 and 60 countries in the world are reliably reported to routinely practise torture, including in some EC neighbouring countries around the Mediterranean basin such as Turkey; that 'emergency lesislation' is still unjustifiably used to hold prisoners of conscience without charge or trial, as in Syria where state of emergency legislation has been in force since 1963;

11. Affirms that such phenomena must be squarely blamed on individual governments and their unwillingness to respect the international pacts to which they have acceded, and put into effect preventive safeguards and remedial measures;

NEGATIVE DEVELOPMENTS

12. Draws attention, below, as has been the pattern with previous annual reports, to the consequences of armed and political conflicts, mismanagement and famines which can lead to serious violations of human rights:

I. Refugees and displaced persons

(a) The continuing growth of the world's population of refugees now estimated at 15 million, with a further 20 million displaced persons, with the greatest numbers in South East Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Horn of Africa, Southern Africa, and Central America, and new problems emerging in such countries as Somalia and Liberia where the 1990 civil war in that country, with its population of 3 million, led to 500,000 displaced persons in the country and 500,000 refugees in neighbouring countries,

(b) The emergence of new refugee problems on a considerable scale in the Middle East, particularly as a result of the Gulf war, and affecting particularly the Shi'ite and Kurdish populations of Iraq; and in Eastern and Central Europe which, for instance, led in 1990 to an estimated net inflow of about 1 million people into the Federal Republic of Germany and, according to Commission estimates, the prospect that some four to eight million persons might seek to leave the Central and Eastern Europe, including the USSR in the coming years

II. Children

(a) The increased marginalisation and vulnerablility to gross human rights abuses of children, as highlighted at the 1990 World Summit for Children, with 15 million infants and children dying each year, according to UN estimates,

(b) The existence of more than 100 million 'child slaves' in the world, with the greatest numbers of labour-exploited children in the Indian sub-continent, though there is also exploitation of under-age labour in certain European countries as in Portugal, Italy and Greece,

(c) Violence against 'street children', as in Brazil and Guatemala in 1990 which saw an epidemic of child murders with street children being gunned down by vigilante groups in many cases made up of off-duty police,

(d) The suffering of the 'street urchins' of Bogota and other Colombian cities who live and die on the streets and are often forcibly recruited as thugs and murderers by gangs of drug-traffickers,

(e) In countries all over the world, the unjust imprisonment, torture, 'disappearances' and murder of children by agents of the state, one significant example being Iraq where hundreds of children have been mistreated, and many of them have disappeared or been tortured,

(f) Failure to protect childrens' rights in other countries such as Guatemala, Peru, Sri Lanka, Turkey, the Occupied Territories and South Africa, where an estimated 9,000 children were detained under state of emergency regulations between June 1986 and June 1989,

(g) The enormous increase in child prostitution, found particularly in countries where pro capita income is significantly below the world average, although it is also found, admittedly only sporadically, in Member States,

III. Torture

(a) The persistence of deaths reported after torture in such countries as El Salvador, Burkina Faso, Sudan, South Africa, Indonesia, Iraq, China, India, Myanmar (Burma) and Kuwait, with certain countries where the phenomenon of torture had not been previously observed to a significant degree also being reliably identified as in Equatorial Guinea and Kenya where in 1990 there was torture and ill-treatment of hundreds of prisoners of conscience,

(b) The increased involvement of doctors in torture as a result of its practice by increasingly scientific methods, leading to a global campaign within the medical profession to ban such doctors from practising, which led in South America alone (most notably in Chile) to nearly 20 doctors (in 1990) being found guilty of complicity in torture by the ethical commissions of their own professional bodies,

IV. Trade Union rights

(a) The violation of trade union rights and liberties in many countries, as was indicated by the General Assembly of the International Labour Conference of June 1991.

(b) The proclamation of laws and/or orders to restrict trade union activities and oppress trade union leaders and activists, leading to disappearances, torture and extra-judicial executions of such trade unionists, solely on account of their union activities,

V. Death squads/extrajudicial executions and 'disappearances'

(a) The resurgence of such extrajudicial killings often arising in situations of international and internal armed conflict, violence between armed groups (guerillas, drug dealers, police and the military), the reemergence of death squads which appeared to have come under control in certain countries,

(b) The spread of this phenomenon to areas where it had not previously been reliably documented, such as in parts of Asia (for instance, Sri Lanka, India, the Philippines and Myanmar (Burma)); and in Africa, where, for instance, the work of death squads in South Africa is now coming to light; or Mali where there was government-sponsored killing of members of the ethnic Tuareg group, and 55 prisoners were extrajudicially executed by the security forces in August 1990; or Niger, during the same period, where more than 100 Tuaregs were reportedly killed; or in Somalia where in July 1989 46 political prisoners were executed extrajudicially; or in Mauritania where in April 1989 and November/December 1990 extrajudicial executions by the security forces took place; or in Chad, where more than 300 prisoners were executed by the Presidential Guard in December 1990 or starved to death in custody; and in the Middle East, most notably the killing of scores of unarmed Kuwaitis by Iraqi occupying forces in 1990,

(c) The increased number of death threats against individuals in many countries, according to United Nations Special Rapporteur, Amos Wako, who in 1990 wrote to forty-five governments requesting explanations about summary executions about which he had received information,

(d) The continuing practice of 'disappearances' as in Peru, Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and in China, where dozens of persons arrested in June 1989 remain unaccounted for; and the continuing absence of new information or investigation of long-term 'disappearance' cases, as in Ethiopia, Syria, Morocco, Western Sahara, Guinea, Chad and Cyprus, with many of these cases dating back some ten or fifteen years,

(e) The continuing failure to account for those persons who disappeared following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus,

(f) The coming to light of new information about disappearances in countries where the phenomenon has essentially been eradicated, as in Argentina and Uruguay, and in Chile, with the Chilean Commission on Human Rights reporting that it has documented 2,200 political executions and 900 disappearances under the Pinochet dictatorship; and the tendency to grant immunity from prosecution to alleged violators of human rights, as has been the case in certain Latin American countries with members of the former military establishment,

VI. Death penalty and extrajudicial executions

(a) The carrying out of extrajudicial executions in a number of countries without due process of law or after grossly unfair trials in a number of countries, as in Iraq, Kuwait, Nigeria, Sudan and Iran, which in the period under review saw the end of a three-year period where 5,000 people were reportedly executed without access to a lawyer, no right to call witnesses in their defence, and no right of appeal and, in Iran, in 1989 alone more than 1,000 prisoners were killed in mass secret executions both for 'political' crimes and 'common' crimes, including many in public, including stoning to death for adultery, drug offences, prostitution and living on immoral earnings,

(b) The continuing application of the death sentence in many countries, in some cases on a considerable scale, as in Iran and also in Iraq, where in 1989 hundreds of executions took place on the basis of sentences imposed by special courts without any right of appeal; in China where there was an increase in the already high number of executions after the crackdown on the pro-democracy movement; and in the Soviet Union where the authorities have now begun to disclose annual figures for death sentences and executions which numbered 190 in 1990,

(c) The execution of long-stay political prisoners, as in Indonesia where four such executions were carried out in 1990, with other prisoners still under sentence of death after twenty years in jail,

(d) Rulings in the United States to maintain the death penalty for juvenile offenders, with the Supreme Court in June 1989 stating that execution of juvenile offenders and the mentally retarded is permissible under the US constitution, and the House of Representatives considering in October 1990 an expansion of the list of federal crimes that can carry the death penalty and a limit of appeals by state prisoners who face execution,

(e) The maintenance of the death penalty in Turkey, the only Council of Europe member state to have carried out judicial executions in the 1980s,although the number of offences for which the death penalty can be applied has been reduced, and the death penalty has not been carried out for more than six years, and in 1991, subsequent to the period under review, the Turkish parliament commuted all of the approximately 290 death sentences,

(f) The trend towards abolishing the death penalty which cannot be considered a favourable trend since the death penalty is still found in the legislations of 134 out of 178 countries and is still applied de facto in 92 countries. Even if the death penalty continued to be abolished at the same rate as in 1990 (7 countries completely abolished it: Namibia, Czechoslovakia, Ireland, Andorra, Sao Tome e Principe, Mozambique and Hungary, and Nepal abolished it only for ordinary offences) we would have to wait until the year 2000 and beyond to see a world without the death penalty. This is without taking into account the attempts being made to reintroduce it in some countries, such as Brazil in June 1991, in El Salvador and in some Far Eastern countries for drug-linked crimes, and unfortunately the issue of reintroducing it is sometimes also raised in Community legislative bodies,

VII. Indigenous peoples

The increased threat to the lives and livelihood of indigenous peoples as they attempt to defend their land from incursions by ranchers and by mining and timber companies, as in Brazil, Canada and Malaysia (Sarawak), and Indonesia (Irian Jaya),

VIII. Ethnic conflict

The explosion of ethnic, sectarian, inter-communal and tribal conflicts, as in the USSR, Romania, Yugoslavia and Iraq, because of the Kurdish problem and in northern provinces of India threatening the unity of these countries, and also in Liberia, Burma, Somalia, Yugoslavia, South Africa, Burundi and Rwanda, and the persistence and intensification of certain long-standing conflicts, as in East Timor and Irian Jaya, which for the past 15 and 29 years respectively have been waging a war of independence against Indonesia; in Ethiopia, in Lebanon and in Sudan where the current Islamic fundamentalist military regime has regularly bombed civilian targets in its war against the rebel Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army, detained reportedly more political prisoners than any other country in Africa during the past year, and cut off food to civilians in many areas, with up to 11 million people now at risk of starvation in Sudan; in Syria where 4000 Jews still live in three ghettos, deprived of basic rights and unable to

leave Syria,

IX. Religious freedom

The prevention of freedom of worship by the state in many countries and the persecution of religious leaders;

POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS

13. Draws attention to the following positive developments which took place during the period under review:

I. Elections and progress towards pluralism

(a) The emergence of elected governments in Eastern and Central Europe where during 1990 in the space of four months six Warsaw Pact countries which had suffered from single-party domination for longer than four decades, became free to vote for governments of their choice,

(b) Moves in many African countries towards greater pluralism, prompted partly by the changes in Europe and by the political and economic failure and corruption and oppression of their governments,

(c) Similar pressures in certain Asian countries, with, however, the continuation of authoritarian governments, despite popular pressure in Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, South Korea and China,

(d) The consolidation of the democratic process throughout Latin America, with free and secret elections taking place in Chile, Nicaragua and Haiti, leaving only Cuba under single-party rule, though democracy remained extremely fragile in many countries, such as Peru and Colombia,

(e) In South Africa important steps towards the abolition of apartheid and discussions being held between all the interested parties,

(f) In Western Sahara, the peace plan devised by the UN and accepted by the different parties, but whose implementation is likely to be jeopardized by the Moroccan army's incursions into Western Sahara;

II. Widening spread of information

The spread of the information revolution which has meant that, with the exception of certain very closed societies and states (North Korea, parts of China, Burma for example) information about human rights abuses can be transmitted around the country and outside the country; furthermore, the spread of the idea of the need for all countries to respect human rights, international measures condemning violations and the pressure of public opinion, where possible, and the improved dissemination of information in this sector have all helped and will continue to help to reduce the number of human rights abuses,

III. Growth of the human rights movement

(a) The continuing growth which has taken place throughout the 1980s of associations dedicated to monitoring or promoting respect for human rights, as in Latin America and in such African countries as Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda,

(b) The establishment by governments of official bodies to respond to complaints of human rights violations, for instance in Benin, Uganda, Zaire, Morocco, Togo, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Turkey - although some of them have only just started their activities and are not always given adequate support;

(c) The work carried out by the UN Commission on Human Rights and by some regional organizations (such as the OAS) which help to publicize human rights violations committed in many countries,

IV. Conflict resolution

The achievement or the prospect of achievement of a settlement in certain long-standing international conflicts which had long remained unsolved, as in Namibia, Nicargua, El Salvador, Cambodia, Angola and the Western Sahara, where the referendum on independence for the Saharawi people will soon be held, and a partial settling of the ethnic conflicts in South Africa: in a number of these cases the new entente between the United States and the Soviet Union has undoubtedly played a positive role,

V. Release of political prisoners

The release of numbers of political prisoners in certain countries in the period under review including Zambia (July 1990), Uganda (April 1990), Burkina Faso (August 1989), South Africa (1989 and 1990), Jordan (September 1989), Benin (August 1989), and Ethiopia, where the three grandsons of former Ethiopian Emperor, Haile Selassie, were released in September 1989 after 15 years of detention without trial;

REGIONAL SYSTEMS OF HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION

14. Reaffirms its belief that regional forms of human rights protection, as under the European Convention on Human Rights and under the Organization of American States Charter might be more effective than other wider-ranging international instruments, but only if they were provided with monitoring systems and possible sanctions to be applied in the event of violations, which they are not at present;

15. Calls upon those Community countries which have not yet done so to:

- remove the death penalty from their statute-books (Greece, Belgium, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) as it has been abolished in practice;

- ratify Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights and the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,

- ratify the European Convention for the prevention of torture;

16. Hopes that the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the OAU monitoring body under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, which now has a permanent headquarters, will enjoy an enhanced role as a result of the changes taking place in Africa and will be supported in its work by African governments;

17 .Regrets that organisations of this kind remain only embryonic in Asia, and that efforts to establish such bodies in the Arab world have been impeded by governments, despite the continuing efforts of the Arab Lawyers Union, and the Arab Organisation of Human Rights;

18. Notes that throughout the world during the period under review there was a burgeoning of human rights organisations pressing for developments of this kind, with this most significant growth occuring in Eastern and Central Europe, Asia and Africa; and that the progress of such organisations has continued in Latin America, contributing significantly to the promotion of human rights, standard-setting and the investigation of past violations;

19. Believes that the provisions in the Lomé IV agreement concerned with human rights represent significant progress and hopes that this will lead to increased responsiveness on the part of ACP governments to expressions of concern and representations by the Community about human rights problems;

20. Believes that a fundamental question with major human rights implications is devising ways to enable most of the world's population comprising diverse groups of peoples in the same countries to come together under common political structures, notably in Africa and in the Soviet Union where the problem has emerged dramatically in the period under review;

21. Considers that the new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe which have replaced the previous regimes must be helped, since the persistence of difficult economic situations, which are the cause of discontent among the people, cannot bring about the state of social peace which is needed for these countries on the threshold of democracy to really make up the distance separating them from the Western countries and give their inhabitants a good quality of life;

22. Notes that now that the East/West opposition has come to an end, a new North/South opposition has emerged during the period under review, with a 'poverty curtain' separating the developed and the developing worlds, and notes by way of example that the real income of the average African has declined in real terms over the last 20 years and that the countries of Africa now have international debts equal to the continent's entire GNP at a time when aid from the developed world is falling, recognising that unless this trend is reversed new democracies are very likely to be overwhelmed by economic crises;

23. Believes that although the Commission has proposed to Council (October 1990) the cancellation of ACP debts to the EC (such as special loans, transfers and the rescheduling of special credits) that considerably more initiatives of this kind could be taken;

24. Believes that it is impossible to separate development efforts from the efforts needed to establish democratic states;

25. Recognises that respect for all human rights (political, economic and social) will have to be a key criterion in the evaluation of development policies in the 1990s;

COMMUNITY POLICY

26. Believes that during the period under review there has been a significant evolution in Community thinking about human rights policySEC (91) 0061, 25 March 1991, 'Human Rights, Democracy and Development and Coopearation Policy' (Annex 4), partly prompted by the changes which have taken place in Eastern and Central Europe and by the pressure in other regions of the world towards greater pluralism;

27. Welcomes any moves towards development of a more coherent Community policy on human rights with respect to third countries, and calls on the Commission and Council to ensure that in moving away from a 'selective', 'ad hoc' policy that there is a consistency of approach;

28. Considers that in the role which the Community wishes to play in the peace process in the Middle East the human rights situation in the various Arab states must be involved specifically, in particular where the principles of a constitutional state, democracy, protection of human integrity and freedom of worship are concerned;

29. Notes, in this connection that there are many examples in the period under review and subsequently where it is clear that Community policy has been dictated less by human rights considerations than by other interests as, for instance, in policy towards Myanmar (Burma), China, Syria and Morocco among others;

30. Welcomes the objective of inserting references to common commitments with respect to human rights into a growing number of Community agreements with third countries or groups of countries, as in the Lomé IV agreement, the agreement between the Community and the countries party to the General Treaty on Central American Economic Integration, with Argentina, Chile, Mexico and in the Association Agreements currently being negotiated with Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary;

31. Calls on the Commission and Council to press for the inclusion of such references in a standard form in the whole range of such agreements concluded by the Community;

32. Calls on the Commission and Council to ensure that in instances where programmeable aid is suspended on human rights grounds (as with the Sudan in 1990), this should not lead to any diminution of humanitarian aid or other forms of aid or cooperation which are of direct help to the local population, though great care should be taken to ensure that such aid reaches the people for whom it is intended;

33. Considers that any decision to suspend aid should not be taken merely at the administrative or executive level, but should always be subject to transparent and thorough political deliberation;

34. Calls on European Political Cooperation to be more explicit about criteria used to take up individual cases;

35 .Notes that the human rights component of the Helsinki process has expanded considerably, with many important human rights affirmed in the June 1990 Copenhagen document, including minority rights and the right to representative government;

36. Calls on the Commission and Council to ensure that human rights considerations are one of the main pillars in the 'new European architecture' and notes the stress laid on respect for human rights at the November 1990 CSCE summit in Paris, that much of the follow-up activity scheduled to take place before the next full Review Conference in Helsinki in 1992 concerns human rights and that a main commitment in the Final Declaration at the Copenhagen 'human dimension' conference in June 1990 was the creation of a common legal space;

37. Believes that as is the case with the Commission, Parliament should be represented at all appropriate interim meetings (such as the 'human dimension conference in Moscow in September 1991), as well as at the full review conferences, and records its appreciation of the assistance provided in the past by European Political Cooperation to delegations of Parliament which have attended such CSCE conferences;

38. Believes, in view of the role the Community must play in CSCE, that it is no longer appropriate for the Community as such not to be a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, and calls on the Council, without further delay, to respond positively to the Commission's proposal to the Council in November 1990Commission communication on Community accession to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and some of its Protocols (SEC(90) 2087) (Annex 5) for Community accession to the European Convention, and for the Commission to be given a negotiating mandate to that end;

39. Notes that whereas all legal acts of the Member States are subject to human rights control by the Strasbourg Commission and Human Rights Court, EC acts are not subject to this mechanism and thus its institutions benefit from a sort of 'immunity' from scrutiny to the detriment of the citizens' protection system;

40. Notes further that because of the growing scope of the Community's competences in economic and other areas, Community legislation has come to have increasing human rights implications, for instance, draft directives on the retention of personal data and on the right of residence;

41. Believes that these considerations are of particular importance in view of the proposals before the Intergovernmental conference on European citizenship and recalls the document by the Twelve published in December 1990, before the intergovernmental conference started, stating that the great majority of delegations agreed that the concept of European citizenship should form part of the new Treaty, together with a number of specific rights to be defined at the conference in the areas of civil rights, economic and social rights, equality of treatment with regard to social legislation and diplomatic protection in third countries;

42 .Calls for the Intergovernmental Conference and other meetings reviewing the provisions of European Political Cooperation and the Community's external relations policy, to state explicitly that concern for human rights is one of the cornerstones of Community foreign policy;

43. Calls on the Foreign Ministers meeting in European Political Cooperation to draw up an annual report on human rights worldwide for the European Parliament;

44. Calls on the Council and the Member States to give further consideration to drawing up a European Bill of Rights and for the concept of European citizenship to be enshrined in the future Treaty by means of a series of rights guaranteed by adequate political and legal mechanisms, and furthermore that the Community should be given responsibility for controls over immigration and asylumParliament's resolution of 14 June 1991 (Part II, Item 18 of Minutes of that date);

45. Calls on Community Member States to review national legislation or administrative rulings to prevent the export of specialised equipment, ostensibly for 'security purposes', which can be abused by repressive governments, and not to cooperate with such governments in providing training or information about interrogation techniques;

46. Calls for the development of more structured cooperation between Parliament and the Commission on human rights, partly through an inter-institutional working party (as proposed in the previous annual report), and partly through periodic meetings at an appropriate level, where European Political Cooperation could be represented to discuss priorities for action in the field of human rights and to prepare Community positions at such international fora such as CSCE and the United Nations;

47. Calls on the Commission to examine the possibility of making one of its members specifically responsible for questions concerning human rights and citizens' rights and to provide him with the assistance of a specialist task force;

48. Requests that explicit reference be made to human rights objectives in the annual presentation of the Commission's programme;

49. Calls for similar meetings in the budgetary field between representatives of Parliament and the Commission to ensure greater transparency with regard to human rights-related spending and better coordination to ensure that funds are targeted within a balanced global perspective, and there is better coordination and balance between different budget headings;

50. Calls for an increase in the funds available for human rights-related activities and programmes in different parts of the world which should also make provision for the technical means and staff to implement them, in view of the extremely limited resources of the Commission in the human rights field;

51. Calls for more channelling of funds towards regional human rights organisations, in an even-handed, geographically balanced way;

52 .Calls for a significant part of the European Community's human rights budget to go to education and training, as part of a rolling pluri-annual programme, to enable lawyers, doctors, civil servants, prison personnel, police and members of other professions to serve in departments concerned with human rights in Member States and in the Commission and Parliament, which should also initiate specific human rights 'traineeships' of three months or more, modelled on the 'stagiaire' programme;

53. Wishes the European Foundation for Human Rights in Amsterdam, which is financed by the Community, to be more closely integrated into the Community's activities with definite objectives and the involvement of the European Parliament;

UNITED NATIONS

54. Deeply regrets that only about half of the UN member states have ratified the United Nations agreements on human rights, that only one state in five could be said to respect those covenants and calls upon those Community countries which have not ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and its two optional protocols, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention against torture, to do so, while at the same time recognising with regret that ratification in itself is no indication of compliance;

55. Welcomes the improved coordination among the Twelve at the United Nations, where at the beginning of the 1990 session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, the President-in-Office delivered a decisive statement on behalf of the Twelve, and there was also a statement on behalf of the Twelve on the human rights situation in certain countries of particular concern;

56. Notes that at the May 1990 session of the UN Economic and Social Council the Irish presidency played a key role in resolving the difficult problem of agreeing an enlargement of the membership of the Commission on Human Rights as well as on measures to enhance the effectiveness of the Commission;

57. Calls on the Twelve to continue to work to improve and make more effective UN human rights activities;

58. Believes that the European Community has not sufficiently developed its links with the human rights structures of the Council of Europe or with the United Nations or its specialised agencies, and believes that there should be careful consideration of whether the Community could at least be granted observer status with, for instance, certain bodies such as the UNHCR;

59. Reaffirms its belief that the United Nations is the world's pre-eminent standard-setting human rights organization and also believes that the rules of procedure of the Security Council must be amended, as they are based on outmoded criteria resulting from the Second World War which should therefore be reformulated;

60. Reiterates its concern that at the UN, particularly the Commission on Human Rights, regional alliances have too often prevented condemnation of countries where human rights abuses were manifest and that this politicisation and unprincipled alliances remain a feature of the human rights work of the United Nations;

ACTIVITIES OF PARLIAMENT

61. Reaffirms the undertakings made in previous annual reports and its belief that Parliament, through its links with political forces in third countries, and as the world's only international elected Parliament, has an active role to play in promoting respect for human rights, and that this corresponds to the wishes of millions of Community citizens and could not be considered ultra vires or as interference in the internal affairs of third countries;

62. Undertakes to make greater use of Parliament's formal and informal means to take action in favour of human rights concerns to representatives of third countries;

63. Considers that beyond public pronouncement, the Parliament will not be able to adopt a more active and effective role and will lose its credibility unless its own internal structures within the Secretariat and its voting procedure in plenary sittings are not significantly improved and strengthened and notes that despite the efforts made in that direction in recent years, the growing number of appeals to the European Parliament and the demonstrable successes in this field call for effective improvements; considers further that the European Parliament should be guaranteed the possibility of being informed of all violations of human rights occurring in the world so that it may, with the authority it has acquired in recent years, intervene where necessary on the basis of definite and indisputable information;

64. Decides to pursue greater coordination with other national and international bodies concerned with human rights, both within and outside the European Community, as well as with the Commission and European Political Cooperation;

65. Calls on the Commission and on the President-in-Office of the Foreign Ministers meeting in European Political Cooperation (in accordance with paragraph 7(2) of the Decision of 28 February 1986), formally to submit observations on this resolution;

66. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Foreign Ministers meeting in European Political Cooperation, the Council of Europe, the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the governments of all the countries mentioned in this motion for a resolution.