Statement at Council of Europe, 119th Session of the Committee of Ministers

Mr Chairman, fellow Europeans,

Let me thank Spain – and you personally – for your very able chairmanship. Now we are looking forward to cooperating closely with the incoming Slovenian chair.

Sixty years ago, ten countries signed the Treaty of London. Norway was among them. We embarked on an ambitious project of strengthening democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Right across Europe.

Six decades later we have much to celebrate – and to focus on. Let me highlight three areas.

First, basic values and human rights.

We have established an impressive body of norms at the European level. This has helped to pave the way for European integration. However, much remains to be done before our ambition of making democracy and human rights a reality throughout Europe is achieved.

The European Court of Human Rights is a cornerstone in our system for protection of human rights. This is why the Court’s ever-increasing backlog is a serious threat to the effectiveness and credibility of the whole system. I believe that this situation requires urgent action.

With this in view, Norway will consent to provisional application of certain procedure in Protocol 14. We should also ensure that Protocol 14 enters into force in its entirety. And we need to adopt additional measures, since it is clear that Protocol 14 in itself is insufficient.

Meanwhile, the conflict in Georgia and its consequences also call for action by the Council of Europe. We greatly value the engagement of the Commissioner for Human Rights and appreciate the constructive proposals by the Secretary General. We are concerned about the lack of access to areas affected by the conflict, and call on all parties concerned to give international organisations free access to these areas. 

Second, security.

The first meeting of the parties to the Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism was held today, and we are reminded of the horror of the terrorist attack on Madrid in June 2004.

It is when we are hardest tested that it is most difficult to remain true to our core values. But it is all the more important to ensure that the measures we take are in line with our obligations under international law.

Third, the organisation itself.

The Warsaw Summit in 2005 concluded that organisational reform is an urgent priority. The challenge is to make sure that we work efficiently, while strengthening the Council of Europe’s political relevance.

This calls for clearer political priorities and focus, and pragmatic partnerships with other regional and international organisations.

Our next Secretary General will be elected in June. Norway believes that a strong and visionary leadership is needed. We must make sure that the Council lives up to its full potential and remains politically relevant in Europe.

That is why Norway has nominated our former Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and current President of the Norwegian Parliament, Mr Thorbjørn Jagland, as a candidate for the position of Secretary General. I am convinced that Mr Jagland is the leader Europe and this organisation needs.

I strongly believe in the future of this organisation. Today, we must be as bold, visionary and determined as the leaders who founded the Council of Europe two generations ago. And we must tirelessly pursue our goal: a democratic and united Europe.

source.mfa.norway

Norway requests more active UN engagement in Sri Lanka – trying to put back the Sri Lankan affair on the map again

Norway condemns the hostilities in Sri Lanka and believes the UN should be more actively engaged.

Erik Solheim, Norwegian Minister of the Environment and International Development, commented, “A humanitarian ceasefire in Sri Lanka must be put in place as soon as possible in order to stop the bloodbath.” 

If the hostilities continue, there is a serious risk of a further dramatic loss of life within the government-designated safe zone. According to the UN, at least 50 000 people are trapped in this area. So far, attempts to persuade the parties to the conflict to end the fighting have not been successful. 

Norway’s Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre commented, “We take a very critical view of the fact that the parties are continuing to fight and resisting the strong international effort to find a solution. The situation in Sri Lanka should be discussed in the UN Security Council.” 

The US, the EU, Japan and Norway discussed the situation in Sri Lanka yesterday, and are requesting a more active UN engagement. They are unanimous in insisting that the authorities in Sri Lanka meet their obligations and do not fire into the area where civilians are trapped. The Tamil Tigers must allow civilians to leave the war zone. 

Mr Solheim also pointed out, “It is important that the UN is engaged at all levels. It is encouraging that Secretary-General  Ban Ki-moon intends to visit Sri Lanka as soon as possible.” 

“We urge the authorities to let the UN into the war zone to help to bring the fighting to an end and assess the humanitarian situation. The UN and the Red Cross must be given free access to civilians wherever they are,” Mr Støre underlined. 

The parties to the conflict are responsible for upholding international humanitarian law. They have an obligation to protect civilians affected by the conflict. 

“It is important that the events that have led to such huge civilian losses are properly examined,” Mr Solheim added. 

source.mfa.norway

Gaddafi to visit Italy next month

Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi.

Posted Wednesday, May 13 2009 at 19:13

 

ROME, Wednesday

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi will pay an official visit to Italy next month before returning for the G8 summit in July, the Italian Foreign Ministry said today.

Libya’s ambassador to Italy Hafed Gaddur said the visit from June 10 to 12 would mainly concern bilateral issues.

The two countries signed an accord last August under which Rome will provide billions of dollars in investments and compensation for its colonial rule of the North African country from 1911 to 1943, ending a long-running dispute.

They have also signed an agreement meant to stop illegal immigrants from reaching Italy, and last week Rome began sending migrants intercepted at sea directly back to Libya before touching shore, drawing criticism from the United Nations.

Bought stakes

Libyan investment funds have bought stakes in major Italian companies in recent months and have said they were considering further investments.

President Gaddafi will return to Italy in July to attend, as chairman of the African Union, the part of a G8 summit due to include African leaders.

On that occasion, he could meet US President Barack Obama, which would be the first meeting between Colonel Gaddafi and a US president.

Italy, which this year chairs the Group of Eight, has been at the forefront of the West’s warming ties with Tripoli since Libya announced in 2003 that it would stop pursuing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. (Reuters

source.nation.ke)

GLOBAL: Labour migration cuts will hurt developing countries, says World Bank

Photo: Maria Font de Matas/IRIN

Migrant workers in Jordan (file photo)

DAKAR, – Several industrialised countries, including Spain, the United Kingdom and Italy, are cutting foreign worker migration quotas, which migration experts call a “mistake” for the economies of both developing and industrialised countries.

Khalid Koser, migration specialist at the Geneva Center for Security Policy told IRIN: “These hits come on top of the 2008 global food crisis and high commodity prices, as well as [slow] progress on the Millennium Development Goals, accentuating some already negative trends for the developing world.”

Much of sub-Saharan Africa has yet to see the full impact of the global financial crunch, but in the coming months higher unemployment and cuts in investment and aid will combine with a cut in remittances to show “the real impact”, Koser said.

Quotas

The number of would-be migrants affected is unknown, World Bank chief economist Dilip Ratha said. Meanwhile more countries are announcing cuts. The UK has introduced a points-based system favouring highly skilled over unskilled migrants, Australia has reduced skilled migrant intake by 14 percent and Spain has introduced a migrants “voluntary return” programme.

Italy will soon introduce tougher requirements for residency permits, according to International Labour Organization (ILO) and World Bank staff. And in the United States the February 2009 stimulus package makes it more difficult for beneficiary firms to hire high-skilled foreign workers.

A UK Home Office spokesperson told IRIN: “We’ve always said we would run our immigration system for the benefit of the UK and that is why we introduced a points system.”

She continued, “We have already demonstrated that flexibility by putting a stop to low-skilled labour entering the UK from outside Europe.” 

Impact

But the World Bank’s Ratha told IRIN: “A crisis is the worst time to impose immigration restrictions both for the sending and the destination country.”

Migration specialist Koser agrees: “Reducing quotas are a mistake because governments are responding to public pressure rather than the reality.”

Government officials in Liberia say the cuts will increase poverty. Liberia’s deputy Finance Minister, Samuel Marwolo told IRIN, “Remittances from legal labour migrants have already slowed, and should governments enforce quota cuts, it would contribute to the level of poverty in the country.”

In 2007 remittances to developing countries surpassed official global development aid by 60 percent, according to the World Bank.

Remittances from migrants to developing countries are set to drop by five to eight percent in 2009 according to the latest World Bank research, in contrast to double-digit growth in the last five years.

“As a result, a large number of poor households in developing countries, especially poorer remittance-dependent countries, will suffer,” economist Ratha said.

Unemployment

Quota cuts stem from a rapid rise in unemployment in industrialised countries, according to ILO migration specialist Patrick Taran. The unemployment rates in the UK, Italy and Spain are 6.7 percent, 7 percent and 17.4 percent, respectively, and rising. Spain’s rate is currently the highest in the European Union.

But some sectors that are highly dependent on migrant labour – such as agriculture – are not expected to see a significant decline in demand, though others such as construction, manufacturing, hospitality and retail services are facing sharper cuts, according to Taran.

Former shea nut exporter Joseph Attah (not his real name) in Ghana’s capital Accra said his business recently collapsed partly because exports have dwindled. He said the migration quotas could push people to move illegally. “My family and friends are pushing for me to travel. [They mention Libya]. With more pressure from governments some might be forced to use these dangerous means to get to Europe.”

Unemployment rates for the formal sector are 20 percent in Ghana and 85 percent in Liberia, according to the most recent World Bank figures.

Lower legal migration generally means lower clandestine movement according to Ibrahim Awad, chief of ILO’s migration branch. Nonetheless tens of thousands of Sub-Saharan African migrants are expected to attempt to travel to Europe, without papers, in 2009.

“Migration is rational. Migrants estimate costs and benefits of staying and moving,” Awad said. “At times they may over-rate benefits and under-rate costs, which is at the origin of the tragedies we see of people making attempts and ending up in dangerous situations.”

Attah in Ghana is not making the move yet. “I would have loved to enter a developed country with a visa, to help my family, but for now I will not try as it is not realistic for me. I am still looking for another job here…and I will keep going until I drop dead.”

aj/np source.www.irinnews.org

NIGER: Migrant influx creates food shortage – the international community must step in and give proper aid

Photo: Ibrahim Diallo Manzo/IRIN

Trucks transporting migrants in northern Niger must now include food

AGADEZ,  – As an unusually large influx of migrants cross Niger’s Aïr mountains to leave sub-Saharan Africa, food prices in northern Niger have more than tripled and created “dangerous levels of food insecurity”, according to regional health authorities.

“I have never seen as many migrants as now. It is worrisome to see so many transiting through Agadez,” said the regional public health deputy director, Mamadou Kollo.

Agadez is a popular departure point for migrants travelling to northern Africa and beyond.

“There is now a chronic shortage of food,” Kollo told IRIN. “A kilogram of rice in Dirkou that used to cost 60 US cents per kilogram now costs $3.” Dirkou is one of the last border posts before reaching Libya, where local residents rely on food deliveries from Agadez, 650km south, and from cities in Libya to the north.

Kollo said migrants have increased both demand and prices for food, which is difficult to transport to desert communes through the mountains.

The governor of Agadez region, which encompasses 15 communes – some scarcely populated – passed a decree in March that any large vehicle leaving Agadez with passengers would not be permitted to leave unless it transported food.

Through the Sahara

NIGER: Desert smuggling profits climb

WEST AFRICA: Migrants risk all to cross desert

SAHEL: Voices from clandestinity

The deputy manager at the main departure station in Agadez, Ahmed Koréy, told IRIN that as a result of heightened surveillance of larger vehicles, smaller cars have started transporting migrants through the desert mountains.

He said thousands of migrants have come through the station from January to March, many times more than usual. In March 7,822 travellers registering at the site were from outside Niger.

Migrant testimonies

Agadez governor Abba Mallam Boukar told IRIN the Nigerien government is concerned by the recent increase in numbers of undocumented migrants crossing Niger. During negotiations between Niger and Libya in April to clamp down on clandestine migration, Libya’s Interior Minister said 80 percent of clandestine migrants entering Libya come through Niger.

“Only 10 percent of those migrants are from Niger,” said Agadez’s governor. ”We cannot stop youth from travelling through Niger because the majority of them come from countries that belong to the Economic Community of West African States [ECOWAS].” 

There is no question of looking back

Boukar said the majority of the youth who try to enter Libya through Niger do not have travel papers. “But what can we do to stop them?” 

A resident from any of ECOWAS’s 15 member states does not require travel authorisation to enter another member state.

At the end of March, an overfilled truck of migrants leaving Agadez broke down and split into two, leading to serious injuries among would-be migrants. One of those on board, who requested anonymity, told IRIN the accident did not change his plans. “I fell from the truck and broke my arm and hurt both feet. I am waiting to heal completely before I continue. There is no question of looking back.”

idm/pt/np source.www.irinnews.org