“We would like to see us move closer to adhering to the principles formulated 73 years ago in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But what has become noticeable in recent years is often the opposite trend,” said Bärbel Kofler, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Federal Republic of Germany ) at an online conference at the German Foreign Ministry.
The conference was timed to coincide with Human Rights Day, which is celebrated annually on December 10. On this day in 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The world is further away from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
“The human rights situation at the international level and in many individual countries, according to Kofler’s observations,” is evolving in the direction opposite to the desire to comply with the provisions of this declaration – towards autocratic systems that deny their citizens political participation and are not focused on the needs of the people. ” …
Increasing pressure on civil society, a decreasing space in which to speak freely, the Commissioner listed, also pointing out the connection between sports and human rights – from working conditions in the construction of sports facilities to the observance of human rights in host countries of sports events: “So many those, in the analysis of which we perfectly understand that we have not achieved the goals set 73 years ago, including ours. “
How to build a dialogue with authoritarian regimes?
How to deal with authoritarian regimes? How to build relationships with them? How to address human rights issues? Berbel Kofler does not have ready-made answers to the questions she was asked from an online audience.
Berbel Kofler
“You should maintain contacts and conduct a dialogue with all countries without exception, this is clear, this is the essence of diplomacy,” she said. You don’t care. The question is how to maintain a balance, what projects can be done together, what ties to develop. Will it be possible to strengthen and involve civil society in such countries and not be limited to exchange of views at the government level. “
An example is China. How to deal with such an increasingly self-confident country, asks Berbel Kofler rhetorically, as it pursues an increasingly aggressive foreign policy? In her opinion, a more coordinated approach of European countries, a common European strategy for relations with China is needed. In the past, according to the Ombudsman, European countries have made many mistakes, finding themselves in strong economic dependence on China.
Anti-liberal tendencies in the European Union
But is it possible now for a coordinated strategy of European countries in the field of human rights protection? Steffen Angenendt of the Berlin Foundation for Science and Politics (SWP) drew attention to the situation in the European Union itself, “where some member states themselves are pursuing increasingly harsh domestic policies and in many respects are increasingly inward-looking.” …
Steffen Angenendt
And how, then, in the EU are we to launch initiatives in the EU, he asks, aimed at improving the human rights situation? Among the increasingly anti-liberal trends in EU foreign policy, Angenendt considers, in particular, the approaches of some European countries to the problem of migration and refugees.
The expert recalled that both the European Convention on Human Rights and the Geneva Convention on Refugees prohibit the expulsion of asylum seekers to countries in which they are threatened with reprisals or torture. This provision, according to Steffen Angenendt, also applies to migrants. “Unfortunately, now many European states are increasingly violating this principle,” he stated, recalling the so-called “pushbacks” (illegal displacement of refugees from the country), which were practiced in Greece, Croatia and recently in Poland.
Evacuation from Kabul: Berlin could have done more
In this regard, the conference participants criticized the policy of the former German government. For example, the former head of the Amnesty International office in Germany, and now the head of the Berlin bureau of the Open Society Foundations, Selmin Caliskan, believes that Berlin could do much more to evacuate human rights defenders and employees of German organizations from Afghanistan. the number of the local population.
“It is not so much the state that is rescuing these people, as non-governmental organizations, with the help of private donations, are trying to save and take out of Afghanistan the endangered people along with their families,” Caliscan complained and called on the new German government to expand the list of Afghans who are granted asylum in Germany.
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