Letter from Sir Peter Marshall, KCMG CVO
THE EUROPEAN UNION AND HUMAN RIGHTS
In the context of the Committee's forthcoming
examination of the latest FCO Human Rights Annual Report, will
you permit me to offer two reflections:
(1) There is indeed a great deal to celebrate
as we mark the 60th anniversary this year of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. There is probably no more important change in
the character of international relations since the end of the
Second World War than the move of human rights, as the Foreign
Secretary recently put it, from the margins to the mainstream.
In the days of classical diplomacy, people were called subjects,
but were all too often treated as objects. Today they really are
the subject. The United Nations deserve great credit for this
change, and we as a country can feel proud of the part we have
played.
(2) There is a curious irony in the role
of human rights in the evolution of the European Union. On the
one hand the historic enlargement of the EU to embrace the peoples
of the former Warsaw Pact countries is both a great boon to them
and a triumph for European values, from which we can all draw
great encouragement. On the other hand the Lisbon Treaty is a
spectacular failure when it comes to meeting one of the two fundamental
challenges identified by the Declaration of Laeken issued on the
threshold of enlargement: namely to bring the institutions closer
to the citizens. Cynics might dismiss that challenge as reluctant
condescension by the elite to keep the voters quiet. A more accurate
and constructive explanation is that it testifies to recognition
of the vital importance of human rights if the EU is to flourish.
Any examination of human rights within the EU cannot but take
account both of the failure of the Lisbon Treaty in this regard,
and of the ongoing problem which remains to be addressed.
No aspect of the EU human rights picture is
more important than the expansion in prospect of the powers of
the European Court of Justice. I venture to enclose a copy of
a letter on this question which I have sent to the Chairman of
the Constitution Committee of the House of Lords.[58]
It has naturally caused me to look again at your masterly Report
on the Foreign Policy Aspects of the Lisbon Treaty, and especially
at what you had to say about the 2007 IGC process. Had there been
greater and earlier consultation of Parliament, a lot of this
would surely have been picked up.
19 April 2008
58 Not printed. Back
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