Europe is in crisis. Everybody knows that and everybody immediately thinks of banks, the Euro: the sovereign debt crisis; the Euro crisis;
But Europe is in an even more fundamental crisis: democracy crisis; Human Rights crisis.
Human Rights Watch has just published its “World Report Essay 2012: Europe’s Own Human Rights Crisis” where it is pointing out four troubling developments in Europe: “rollback of civil liberties”, debating “the place of minorities and migrants in Europe”, “the rise of populist extremist political parties” and finally “the diminishing effectiveness of traditional human rights institutions and tools.”
A tough break for Europe, for its people and especially for its youth.
We from Human Rights generation have been putting the finger into the wound all throughout the year of 2011, pointing to Human Rights abuses by particular governments and society’s at large.
“Human rights are supposed to be integral to the European project. If the [European] commission does not find more courage to hold member states to account when they break the rules, Europe’s downward slide on rights looks set to continue,” warns Benjamin Ward, for Human Rights Watch.
His reasoning resonates with us when he highlights that “[t]here is always a risk in a democracy that without responsible leadership the majority will support measures that harm the interests of the minority. This dilemma helps explain why human rights protections, which are designed in part to protect against “tyranny of the majority,” are more essential than ever. It is particularly alarming then that Europe’s human rights tools and institutions are proving ineffective in tackling these negative trends.
“Criticisms of abusive policies and rhetoric from human rights NGOs, from the Council of Europe, from the United Nations, from religious leaders, and even in some cases from EU institutions, are brushed aside. Examples include France’s forced evictions and expulsions of Roma, Spain’s incommunicado detention of terrorism suspects, Italy’s interdiction and pushbacks of migrants to Libya under Gaddafi, and Greece’s abusive detention of migrants. The perceived domestic political benefits of engaging in these kinds of policies frequently outweigh the inconvenience caused by international or regional condemnation.”
In our work we, too, have found that Human Rights are more than mere expressions of beautiful but unpractical ideals. No, Human Rights serve a fundamental role in democracies: they protect them. And it is in this respect we see that European democracy is under threat, in many countries.
More needs to be done for citizens, especially minorities and young people, to enjoy Human Rights. Not even all EU Member States have translated the Convention of the Rights of the Child into legislation practice.
And so the Human Rights Watch work concludes: “Move beyond the fine words and human rights in Europe are in trouble. A new (or rather a resurgent old) idea is on the march: that the rights of “problematic” minorities must be set aside for the greater good, and elected politicians who pursue such policies are acting with democratic legitimacy.”
In our work we have shown and will continue to show that it is even more severe than the description above: the rights of children and young people are being violated.
Child poverty is an issue that Human Rights Watch doesn’t even mention, but that is a real threat to the well-being, the rights in the present and to the future of children and young people in Europe.
Also in other areas we have relentlessly been pointing out that “Human Rights [are seen] as an optional extra instead of a core value.” Police violence all over Europe has not been declining over the years, after drastic and shocking examples in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century. On the contrary, it has been a reoccuring crime in many European countries. Everytime a police officer hits a demonstrater (often young) the police is also hitting democracy, active participation and trust in the state institutions. Human Rights Watch doesn’t take up this issue, but we did and we’ll continue to do so.
Corruption is another tremendous problem in Europe that is violating Human Rights. Active participation in society is being ridiculed and made obsolete through the mechanisms of corruption. It erodes the legitimacy of the democratic system because citizens cannot demand accountability anymore and become pacified. Also this issue is absemt from the Human Rights Watch report, but appears in our campaign.
We even went to talk with the Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmström from Sweden, about this issue. She is one of those (few?) from the European Commission who is genuinely dedicated to improve the deteriorating Human Rights state in Europe.
From where we stand, as young Europeans, we see that part of the current problem with the evident Human Rights crisis in Europe is that key players cannot go beyond the given issues either. Human Rights Watch seems to be one of them.
We have to recognize that some of the “four developments” mentioned above are only the symptom for a deeper lying sickness. So, we suggest by our work that we deal with Human Rights as young people see and feel them – because xenophobia, poverty, nationalism and a functional approach to core values are all being caused when children and youth are not protected, are not being involved, are not being allowed to be mobile and free and are being held hostage in a culture grown-ups have created that serves the short-term interests of adults but not those of the society at large and our common, bright future in a free and democratic Europe.
