Debates of the European Parliament

SITTING OF THURSDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER 2003

The European Union and the campaign against torture

Karamanou (PSE). – (EL) Mr President, I too, as chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities, should like to welcome the release today of Amina Lawal, the Nigerian women sentenced to death, to a terrible death by stoning, on charges of adultery, and I should like to congratulate the Commission and my committee for putting up a fight and influencing to a very large degree the decision issued today. We exerted the greatest possible pressure. Nonetheless, this woman will not cease to symbolise the fight of all women the length and breadth of the planet, who are fighting for protection of their fundamental freedoms and human rights.

As far as torture is concerned, I should like, Commissioner, to warmly congratulate you on the initiatives you have taken, especially on the prevention of torture and on the funding of rehabilitation centres for the victims of torture. Nonetheless, I trust you will allow me to philosophise a little on this issue. Two thousand five hundred years ago in Athens, Aristotle stressed that confessions extracted under torture should not be admitted. Another Greek sage and rhetorician, Antiphontas, also said that people subjected to torture only say what pleases their torturers. Naturally, our contemporary experience has taught that any confession can be extracted under torture. Victims say what the investigating magistrates want to hear and sign anything which will put a stop to the pain and torture.

It is a fact, however much of a cliché it may sound, that September 11 marked an important turning point in human rights. Acts of violence and terrorism, the fear and insecurity which were once confined to certain corners of the planet became a daily reality in many other areas, including in the western world.

Commissioner, a few years ago, we ran campaigns against the torture used by totalitarian and dictatorial regimes. We were certain that there was no place for torture in the western world. However, we soon realised our mistake. We realised it when we saw Afghan prisoners with masks covering their eyes and ears in gaol on the American base in Guantanamo in Cuba, under conditions which were tantamount to torture in accordance with the opinion of one expert, Maria Kalli, the Greek president of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims to whom you referred.

At the same time, we were horrified to hear arguments from supposedly enlightened people maintaining that torture should be used in the fight against terrorism. In other words, we are going to re-debate what we have known to be true for 2 500 years. Nonetheless, no-one doubts that the war against terrorism produces even greater terrorism. Unfortunately, the war against terror has turned into a war against freedom, against the freedom to travel in safety, to walk in the street, to meet people and to lead a daily life without fear and terror. The most vivid and recent example of how violence generates even greater violence was the attack on the UN offices in Baghdad.

Today, human rights fighters and voluntary humanitarian organisations are in the line of fire as if they themselves were terrorists. Nonetheless, Commissioner, our fight to combat violence and protect victims must not stop. From this point of view, I congratulate you on any initiatives you take.