EU call for planes to be inspected
sligo |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report 
Friday January 06, 2006 18:29
by John McGowan
The call for US army planes using Shannon airport to be inspected was strengthened today when the Council for Europe welcomed the proposal made by the Irish Human Rights Commission.
In a letter to the president of the IHRC, Maurice Manning, the Council supported the need for the planes to be inspected and said that it shared the concerns over the use of Shannon by planes that may be carrying prisoners destined for illegal torture camps.
Alvaro Gil-Robles, Council for Europe Human Rights Commissioner, said states had a responsibility to ensure that their territories are not used for illicit purposes.
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Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4Jacques Chirac shat in a milk bottle, smiling wryly, while the torture continued apace...
Its the Council of Europe which made the statement not the European Union.
They overlap but are very different. The CofE was established in 1949 and is much larger presently with 46 countries as members and obeserver status given to the Holy See, the United States, Canada, Japan and Mexico.
Our legal obligations to uphold the European Human Rights convention are our most important comitment to the Council. This us a very important distinction, as the EU constitution would have copperfastened certain of those obligations through "duplication". No state has ever joined the Union without first joining the Council. At end the Council attempts to represent 800,000,000 Europeans as opposed to the 480,000,000 of the EU.
http://www.coe.int/T/e/Com/about_coe/
The Irish Act which brought the Human Rights Convention into Irish law is a study of how rotten our lawmakers are. It says "here are all your new rights citizens..." and "here are all our new duties as a state... EXCEPT when there's a conflict with previous laws."
Can I point out that the Council of Europe and the EU are totally different institutions.
It was the Council of Europe that has made the call, not the EU.
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