Whilst under the stewardship of Ukraine until November, the Council of Europe/PACE has adopted a draft resolution condemning the CIA using and EU nations hosting black prisons.
Those EU nations being Spain, Portugal, Poland and Lithuania.
PACE has urged prosecutors to continue their investigations and urged parliamentary inquiries into the activities of respective secret services.
For once, the UK seems to be ahead of the curve having already instigated several independent inquiries into the opaque nature and relationship with other secret service bodies and dubious occurances. Whether the outcomes will be a whitewash or inquiries made very difficult due to “national interest/national security” remains to be seen.
Public Interest Immunity (PII) and all that.
Nevertheless, given the human rights critics from within the EU over certain cases within Ukraine, PACE whilst under a Ukrainian presidency has officially slapped the hands of four EU Member States. Add to this ex-President Chirac being tried for alleged misuse of office and corruption in France, the lack of action by Romania and Bulgaria over corruption of previous leadership in those nations despite EU encouragement to do so, the French actions against the Romany and unilaterally closing its border with Italy for a few hours, Denmark’s decision to reintroduce more stringent border checks pushing the boundaries of the Schengen agreement, enough suspicion of British involvement in illegal rendition and possible collusion in human rights abuses whilst working with the US to justify inquiries, and the list of nations in a position to condemn Ukraine based on current perceptions without current issues of their own is reducing almost every week.
Now of course, there are very few nations who can claim a whiter than white human rights record. Just as policy is either effective, ineffective or counterproductive, human rights can be based on no standards, duplicity or a bar so high that atrocities are allowed to happen before intervention. Almost every nation will be seen as duplicitous when view through the right lenses but the world rarely works in black and white. Invariably it works in shades of grey and thus by that very fact duplicity is the nature of the beast when positions, interests and needs of any national interest shape policy and action/inaction.
Whatever is the case, I am sure any nation currently being coerced by the EU over their human rights records will not fail to add this resolution adopted by PACE to their arsenal of smoke and mirror defences. Ukraine will be no exception.
Another interesting day for those in the diplomatic circus it seems.
Odessablog's Blog 