A quick report on Amnesty Group 81's activities today, International Human Rights Day:

At lunchtime, together with Luis Schoeberl, the Brussels regional coordinator, we held an event at the Berlaymont building where, after a short speech by Natalia Alonso from the AI EU office, we joined hands in a human chain and called for more DIGNITY.

The picture shows Natalia making her speech in front of our piece de resistance - the much coveted inflatable candle!

In the evening, it was time for our monthly quiz at Kitty O'Shea's. 9 teams participated and as usual it was a roaring success! (Thanks to everyone who helped organise it.) The picture shows Terhi handing out prizes at the end of the evening.

Sophie

Celebrating Human Rights Day in the centre of Europe

Today, the 10th December, marks International Human Rights Day. All around the world people have come together to celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). I personally spent part of the day outside of the European Commission alongside Amnesty International highlighting the intrinsic relationship between the EU and human rights.

Sometimes, it is easy to under-estimate the role of the EU in protecting human rights. It is easy to forget that the EU was founded as a union of principle set up to protect and advance these fundamental rights. I have written before on the EU and Uzbekistan highlighting how the EU can have a detrimental effect on human rights(http://stevehynd.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/eu-without-principles-or-pragmatic/). Overwhelmingly however we can see that the EU has advanced the adoption of universal human rights through its work.

The EU pushes human rights on a number of levels, through enlargement, trade agreements, foreign policy, neighbourhood strategies, strategic partnerships and in direct dialogues. The EU has got a commitment main-streamed throughout nearly all of its work to further human rights. What we need however, is a renewed commitment to making these commitments a reality. Too often we can see human rights being side-lined because of other commitments whether it is energy security, trade or defence.

I have written before that without common values the EU is reduced to a large lumbering block of countries. It is only through shared values such as human rights that it draws any political strength. If the EU wants to maintain its position in global affairs it must unite behind these shared values.

This blog was taken from http://stevehynd.wordpress.com/