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| Association Agreement between the European Union and Lebanon | Date: 24-10-2002 |
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Human Rights and the European Parliament assent procedure concerning the Association Agreement between the European Union and Lebanon Brussels, 24th October, 2002 Members of the European Parliament, Within the framework of the current discussions in the European Parliament concerning the Association Agreement between the European Union and Lebanon, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, Human Rights Watch, the World Organisation Against Torture and the International Federation for Human Rights are anxious to express their concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in Lebanon. These organisations request that the European Union respects the commitments contained in the Diez Gonzalez report, adopted on the 25th April, 2002, and uses all available means to implement effectively the human rights clause (article 2), which is considered to be an essential element of the Association Agreement. First of all, we welcome the Hearing of NGOs at the next Foreign Affairs Committee meeting on 25th November. This will represent an important opportunity to enter into dialogue with Lebanese civil society and international NGOs on the human rights issue in Lebanon in the context of the discussions surrounding the Association Agreement. Secondly, we consider it vital that the following elements concerning implementation of article 2 and the evaluation of the human rights situation in Lebanon are taken up during completion of the current draft political resolution. 1. Evaluation and follow-up mechanisms To prevent the human rights clause from becoming a dead letter and to ensure that the European Union and Lebanon respect their commitments, it’s imperative that regular evaluation and follow-up mechanisms for the implementation of this clause are put in place. This must happen as soon as the Association Agreement comes into force. In particular, an EU-Lebanon working group on human rights should be set up and report regularly to the Council and other European institutions on progress in the area of human rights, proposing action plans for the protection and promotion of human rights. This should be done in regular consultation with representatives from civil society as well as on the basis of conclusions and recommendations made by the various human rights defence mechanisms of the United Nations in Lebanon. In addition, the signatories consider that the analysis and priorities of the strategy paper 2002-2006 together with the national indicative programme 2002-2004 of the European Commission should be reviewed with regard to recent worrying developments in the human rights situation in Lebanon. Whilst the Commission has identified respect for human rights as one of the four specific priority areas of co-operation, it has not accorded human rights the necessary importance, having decided not to address the issue until the second phase of assistance, i.e. not before 2005. We invite the European Parliament to ask the Commission to reconsider its priorities in relation to Lebanon, to include human rights in the national indicative programme 2002-2004 and to embark upon co-operation in this area immediately, notably by supporting civil society through the MEDA programmes. 2. Attacks on Freedom of Expression Restrictions still apply across various aspects of political life, violating international law. It has been observed that attacks on freedom of expression have worsened, to wit the forced shut-down of the television channel MTV on 4th September, 2002. MTV was shut down after it covered the by-elections in the Metn region in June, 2002, when it allowed the opposition to express its opinions. The decision of the Court of Appeal on 21st October, upholding the shut-down, merely reinforces our organisations’ concerns about the deteriorating situation. 3. Persecution of students and opponents Persecution of students and opponents has increased, including arbitrary arrests for crimes of opinion ; protestors being systematically beaten up at demonstrations ; unauthorised arrests, often by agents without authority ; the ensuing detention, often in secret ; confessions extracted under torture in police stations and at the Ministry of Defence, and unfair rulings handed down by the military court. In August 2001, 200 people were arrested with unacceptable violence. The same happened in August 2002, when demonstrations by students protesting about the closure of MTV were suppressed. To cite just one more example, three people arrested by the intelligence services during raids in August, 2002, are still being detained. In July 2002, the Court of Cassation upheld their convictions, which were based exclusively on confessions and statements extracted under torture. These people include one member of the Lebanese Militias, Toufic EL-HINDI, and two journalists, Habib YOUNES and Antoine BASSIL. 4. Violations of Justice Justice is increasingly being used as a means of repression, which even government leaders admit. The military court was set up in Lebanon in 1967 and its jurisdiction has since extended to cover all cases pertaining to ‘attacks on state security’, with all abuses falling under this wide-reaching heading. Today, the number of rulings handed down by the military court exceeds the number handed down by the ordinary courts, and the procedure is extremely swift (around three minutes per judgement). We therefore ask the European Parliament to urge the Lebanese authorities to reinstate the pre-1967 judicial system. In addition, even though there have been no executions since 1999, the death penalty still exists in Lebanon. 5. Disappearances and detention in Syrian and Israeli prisons The fate of thousands of people who disappeared in Lebanon during and after the war has never been made the subject of any serious inquiry by the Lebanese authorities, leaving the families of the disappeared in an intolerable state of uncertainty. 17 Lebanese are being illegally detained in Israel. Whilst there is reliable information about several hundred ‘disappeared’ Lebanese being secretly detained in Syrian prisons, the Lebanese authorities have never officially asked Syria to repatriate these nationals. On 11th October, a Lebanese, Henri Daou, was again arrested at the Lebanese-Syrian border and placed in detention in Syria. In its resolution of the 12th March 1998 on Lebanese prisoners detained in Syria, the European Parliament has already asked the Council and the Member States to include this issue in the framework of the negotiations on the Association Agreement with Syria. The Commission for gathering information on the disappeared - which was set up by the Lebanese government in January 2002, under the chairmanship of the Minister of state for administrative reform - refuses to make public the information and statements it has received. Several of its members admit that this information proves indisputably that Lebanese are being secretly detained in Syria. In this context, a delegation of the families of the Lebanese detained in Syria met with the Syrian minister of the interior in Damascus on 22nd July 2002. He promised the families that he would respond on each of the cases submitted ‘within two or three months’, so by October 2002, at the latest. Unfortunately the families still have no news, despite having sent the minister a list naming 172 people detained in Syria. We therefore ask you to question the Lebanese and Syrian authorities on this issue. We also request that you ask the Lebanese government to accept the principle of an international inquiry. Such a commission would be in charge of establishing the truth about the 17000 disappeared and drawing up precise lists of Lebanese secretly detained in Syria and Israel. 6. Attacks on the rights of refugees and asylum seekers In addition to the above violations, there is the dramatic situation regarding asylum seekers and refugees whose most basic rights are being flouted in Lebanon. In certain cases this includes the right to live, during detention or when they are sent back to their countries of origin. We are seriously concerned about the paragraphs of the draft resolution regarding illegal immigration and readmission agreements, and ask Parliament to specify that there must be protection for the rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Lebanon has not ratified the Geneva Convention of 1951. Since the year 2000, refugees and non-Palestinian asylum seekers have been arrested, detained and expelled on a massive scale. Since 1999, around 1000 refugees have been detained or deported in flagrant violation of the international principle of non-refoulement (non-return). For example, we have overwhelming evidence on Iraqis being sent back to Iraq after entering Lebanon illegally. During one of these waves of expulsions in December 2001, 15-17 people were shot down by border guards at the Syrian-Iraqi frontier. In March 2002, two Iraqi asylum seekers, Khaled Salem AZZAOUI and Ali ALKOUT, died in prison in Roumieh, most likely because of a lack of appropriate medical care. We ask that the European Parliament puts pressure on Lebanon to ratify and implement the Geneva Convention of 1951. We also draw your attention to the inhumane living conditions of 382 000 Palestinian refugees. More than half live in the 112 camps in Lebanon, where their rights are being seriously flouted under the pretext of Lebanon supporting their ‘right to return’. The rights which are being violated include both economic, social and cultural rights and civil and political rights, notably the right to work, the right to education, the right to social services, the right to equal justice, the right to private property, the right to political representation and the right to associate freely. We ask that all the laws discriminating against Palestinian refugees are abolished. Lebanese civil society, which has found it increasingly difficult to make itself heard without taking risks in Lebanon, is following the assent procedure within the European Parliament with great hope, seeing here a very important chance to engage in an effective dialogue with the European Union on the human rights issue. We therefore hope that you attend the hearing of Lebanese human rights defenders. We also hope that the concerns and recommendations listed above will be taken up in the resolution and in the questions addressed by the European Parliament to the Commission and the Council in the framework of Association Agreement assent procedure. Yours Faithfully, Marc Schade-Poulsen, Director, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network Driss El-Yazami, General Secretary, International federation for Human Rights Human Rights Watch Eric Sottas, Director of OMCT, World Organisation Against Torture For further information please contact: Marc Schade-Poulsen, Executive Director / Marit Floe Joergensen, Information Officer Euro Mediterranean Human Rights Network, Wilders Plads 8 H, DK-1403 Copenhagen K, Denmark Tel: +45-32 69 89 12 / Fax: +45-32 69 89 01 E-mail: info@euromedrights.net |
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