The European Union is guilty of "hypocrisy" for lecturing the world on human rights while doing nothing to prevent abuses within its borders, Amnesty International claimed today. There is no EU-wide safeguard in place to protect Europeans against abuses by their national authorities, Mr Dick Oosting, head of Amnesty's EU office, told a European Parliament hearing on human rights.
"While there is little doubt about the EU's good intentions on human rights . . . unfortunately, that is where it stops," he said.
"The singular lack of any kind of collective accountability creates the hypocrisy that while it is lecturing the rest of the world on how it should behave, the EU is utterly silent when human rights are violated at home".
The London-based human rights organisation has singled out Greece and Spain for "systematic" abuses against ethnic minorities and immigrants.
But according to Amnesty, there is "a common and disturbing pattern of abuse by law enforcement officials in EU countries, including torture, ill-treatment and excessive use of force which is regularly allowed to go unpunished".
AFP