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| New elections
in January 2010: |
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Mr Aristophanes
GEORGIOU (Cyprus) was elected Vice-Chairperson of the UEL
Group at the January session 2010.
Mr. Tuur ELZINGA
(Netherlands) was elected Chairperson of the
Sub-Committee on International Economic
Relations.
Mrs. Pernille
FRAHM (Denmark) was elected Vice-Chairperson of the
Social, Health and Family Affairs
Committee.
Mr Aleksei
LOTMAN (Estonia) was elected Chairperson of the Committee on
the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional
Affairs.
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Nouvelles élections en janvier
2010:
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Mr Aristophanes GEORGIOU (Chypre) a été
élu en tant que Vice-Président du Groupe GUE à la session de
Janvier 2010.
M. Tuur ELZINGA (Pays-Bas) a été
élu Président de la Sous-Commission des relations
économiques internationales.
Mme Pernille FRAHM (Danemark) a été
élu Vice-Présidente de la Commission des questions sociales,
de la santé et de la famille.
Mr
Aleksei LOTMAN (Estonie) a été élu Président de la Commission de l'environnement,
de l'agriculture et des questions
internationales.
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November 26th, 2010 - Contribution
of senator Tiny KOX, SP Netherlands, on behalf of the United
European Left in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe |
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Cyprus is one of the 47 member
states of the Council of Europe. Core business of the Council
of Europe nowadays is protection and promotion of the rule of
law, democracy and human rights. As I address you as the Chair
of the Group of the United European Left in the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe, allow me to focus my short
intervention on the ongoing struggle between the Rule of
Power and the Rule of Law,
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As the great philosopher
Aristotle said: 'The law should govern, those in power
should be servants of the laws'. 'That might be a good
idea', 20th century Gandhi might have
responded. Between the great idea of the rule of law and harsh
reality of the rule of power there is a huge and frightening
gap. In the past, now and probably in the
future. |
| The ancient ideal of the rule
of law always had to compete with the brutal rule of power.
Dictators, kings and emperors dictated their order in their
society and between nations. But once in a while small steps
towards the rule of law were made, for example when the
British king had to grant his barons the Magna Carta in the
13th century. |
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After ages of authoritarian
rule, the rule of law made its great revival in the ideas of
the Enlightenment and the American and French Revolutions,
before rule of power took over again. |
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Last century, the rule of law
became the foundation under the Universal Declaration on Human
Rights, formulated in 1948 after a period in recent history in
which the brutal rule of power brought us the Second World War
and the total disgrace of mankind, with all its shameful
atrocities and horrible violations of any thinkable human
right. |
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The Council of Europe was
founded 61 years ago. But it only became a real pan-European
institution after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Nowadays all European countries, except for Belarus and the
Vatican, have become member states of the Council of Europe.
And its European Convention on Human Rights now formally
grants any of its 800 million European citizens the protection
of its fundamental human rights and access to the Court of
Human Rights. |
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On the occasion of the
celebration of the 60th anniversary of this Convention I
referred on behalf of the United European Left to the ongoing
structural battle between the attempts to promote the rule of
law and the attempts to impose the rule of
power. |
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After the end of the Cold War
between the Empires of West and East, many people hoped that
now time had come to get rid of the aggressive and dangerous
rule of power and to commit the world to the rule of law, the
protection and promotion of fundamental human rights, peace,
international security and prosperity for
all. |
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But as neoliberalism started to
flood the World after the fall of the Berlin Wall, big
multinational companies rapidly increased their economic
powers at the cost of the working classes, nation states and
international organisations - and therewith at the cost of the
international rule of law. Big Business and Big Capital were
fiercely supported by the government of United States of
America - home of most of the world's Big Businesses and the
last remaining superpower able to protect its economic and
political interests worldwide. Promoting and protecting
neoliberal globalisation, lead by multinational companies and
international financial capital, was seen by leading political
forces in the United States as the best protection of their
own interests. Therefore the American administration started
in the 90ties of the 20th century to advocate its
unilateral Pax Americana, in which global neoliberalism and
American domination were combined. George Bush started, Bill
Clinton continued and George W. Bush completed
it. |
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This American approach lead to the dangerous
erodation of already existing international rule of law and it
resisted the development of new international rule of law. It
was to the detriment of security, disarmament, international
justice, human rights and protection of the environment. A
coalition of the willing, under the lead of the US, started
the First Gulf War, followed by illegal American lead NATO
attacks in the former Yugoslavia , both without permission of
the United Nations. The United States were allowed by the rest
of the world to disengage from international rule of law and
to become ever more hostile against international legal
instruments, mend to promote world peace and
security. |
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After Sept. 11, 2001, when the
US were brutally attacked by international terrorists and when
it got international support for their war on terror, many
countries in exchange, hoped for a US-return to
multilateralism. But that did not happen. The US continued
their unilateral approach in its new wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. And the rest of the world got a clear choice:
either you are with us - or against us, President George W.
Bush said. |
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The US decided to rely first of
all on its national military and intelligence capabilities
rather than on international agreements and the international
rule of law. It therefore blocked the International Criminal
Court, the Kyoto Protocol, the Anti-Personnel Mines Treaty. It
withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. It refused
to perform according to its obligation under the NPT with
regard to nuclear
disarmament. |
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Then the crisis came. That
quickly destroyed the naive believe that neoliberal globalism
in the end would lead to peace and prosperity for all. The
absolute freedom, under US-protection, to Big Capital and Big
Business proved to be an enormous and practically
undismantable booby trap under international cooperation,
national sovereignty and social
arrangements. |
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Since the beginning of the crisis worldwide
hundreds of thousands of children in have lost their lives due
to starvation and lack of medicine. Millions of workers have
lost their jobs and incomes. Billions of taxpayers money has
been used to feed the Beast called Crisis. And many states
have come near to bankruptcy and now feel forced to dismantle
their public sector and social systems. Look to what is
happening in Greece, in Island and in Ireland. Their citizens
are in despair and their governments in total lack of
citizens' trust. Nobody knows how this will develop. The
danger of total chaos is still there, despite all attempts of
international community to restore the international rule of
law in a world that has been dominated far too long by
international rule of capitalist and imperialist power. We
face an economic crisis as well as an ecological crisis, a
food crisis, a raw materials crisis, a social crisis - and we
cannot do anything about it unless we accept that the rule of
law should prevail over the rule of power. In the end, the
rule of power makes us all powerless. |
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To conclude, let me come back
to the rule of law.
In these times of crisis we
hear ever stronger voices advocating to diminuish the rule of
law, the protection of society, the rights of workers, the
sovereignty of states, the powers of democratic institutions.
We hear radical politicians who spit on the rule of law and
the protection of human rights for all and try to put the
blame for the crisis on scapegoats: immigrants, Roma, the
neighbours. These voices promote the rule of power above rule
of law.
It is in my opinion our duty to
resist these radical voices and to propose better solutions
for a sustainable, just and democratic future for us
all. |
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If we want to give peace a real
chance,
If we want to build a better
and a more secure world,
If we want to strive for a more
just and social society,
If we want all
this,
We have to join forces with all
those who also want to stand firm for the civilised rule of
law and dare to oppose the brutal rule of power.
Let us work together, in our communities, in our
countries, in our international organisations. Because, as
Aristotle said, the law should
govern! |
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