Buenos días, buenos días a todos,
Señor ministro [de Asuntos Exteriores de España, José Manuel Albares Bueno], Señor [Alto] Comisionado [de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos, Volker Türk],
Como decimos en Bruselas, “tout protocole observé” para no dejarme a nadie sin citar. Tengo el problema de saber que en qué idioma me dirijo a ustedes. Si tengo que optar por la mayoría del auditorio local, debería hacerlo en Castellano, pero esto se va a poner en las redes y va a ser escuchado en todo el mundo y probamente si utilizo el inglés, habrá más gente – no solo aquí, sino fuera de aquí – que pueda escucharme mejor. No porque el inglés sea la lengua oficial de la Unión Europea, pero probablemente para una difusión universal de este acto puede ser más adecuado, de manera que mezclaré ambos idiomas.
Y voy a utilizar el mío propio para saludar a los viejos luchadores de los derechos humanos que están aquí presentes. Veo, les saludo, no voy a nombrarles uno a uno. Quizá voy a utilizar el nombre de Paca Sauquillo para que represente a todos, en un momento en el que luchar por los derechos humanos en España era casi una actividad subversiva que podía acarrearle graves problemas a quien lo hiciera. Porque el concepto de derecho humano, según en qué momento lo utilices puede parecer una cosa propia de radicales extremistas. Así ocurrió en la historia pasada de mi país, y así ocurre todavía en muchas partes.
Anyway, here we are, and I am very happy. I am delighted to share with you this event to celebrate the Universal – and I want to stress the word ‘Universal’ – Declaration of Human Rights.
Some days ago, one of my colleagues from the Foreign Affairs Ministers – I think it was the German Foreign Affairs Minister [Annalena Baerbock] – was somewhere in the world. She was talking about universal rights, and someone told her: “There is no such thing as universal human rights. Universal? No, it is a Western invention. Rights are something cultural, it depends on where [you are]”. And Annalena answered them, strongly: “No sorry, they are universal.” Certainly, they are universal because they belong to humankind, to all human beings.
They were not ‘invented’ in 1948. It is not an intellectual construction of someone who thought: “Oh, let’s invent human rights”. They formalised the human rights in a Declaration, but human rights existed before and they will exist forever.
However, it took the horror of the Second World War – the incredible horror of the Second World War -to propel human rights into the global conscience through this Universal Declaration and to make clear that rights cannot be given. It is not a given, but you have to fight for[them]. They belong to every single person, but you have to fight for [them] in order to make this belonging reality.
I am coming from Ukraine together with my friend and colleague, [José Manuel] Albares, the Spanish [Foreign Affairs] Minister, and I had the opportunity to visit the Babi Yar. I am sure I am not pronouncing it well, but this is a place near Kyiv where, in two days, 35,000 people were killed. What shocked me, it was not that they were killing 35,000 people but all the logistics that this required to do such a crime. The evil is very powerful, and it is everywhere, because it was done by very cultivated people, who maybe were listening to Strauss [Johann, composer] after killing, were reading [Friedrich] Nietzsche or philosophers. It is not a matter of something that belongs to barbarian people living away from the European culture and civilisation. It is everywhere, and it can come again – and it is coming back to Ukraine.
This Declaration underlines how a government treats its own citizens. From the point of view of the foreign policy of the European Union, I want to stress that. Because, in my job, every time I have to face the request of “Don’t interfere in my internal affairs. Don’t come to talk about my house. My house is my house, take care of yours.” And this is a permanent request from people to whom I am talking around the world. And our Special Representative for Human Rights of the European Union, Mr [Eamon] Gilmore, who is here with us, knows perfectly that this is the first thing that you hear when you ask about human rights. They say; “It is not your business.” Yes, it is our business – everywhere.
Because human rights is not a simple domestic issue. The States cannot hide behind national sovereignty. National sovereignty is not a protection against that. Every person has the same worth, and one right is linked to the realisation of the others.
Over the last 75 years, the Declaration has been the touchstone for how many things we have achieved: human rights, equality and justice. It has taken millions of people out of poverty, secured voting rights for women, driven the end of colonisation, and here in Europe, the end of totalitarian regimes. It has strengthened accountability and underpinned the principle that no one is too powerful to evade justice. Is that true? What do you say, no one is too powerful to evade justice? We will see because now there are very powerful people who are committing violent attacks against human rights, and they are under the demand [warrant] of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
However, despite these achievements that have flowed from the Declaration, we still have massive problems. Massive problems, I am telling you: inequality, extremism, populism, hate speech, [the]catastrophic impact of climate change [and the] frenetic pace of digital development.
Crises are everywhere. The recent one, 100,000 people had to leave their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh. If the world shows concern, and [it needs to] do something for that. We can, using all our instruments to advance human rights. We spend money – €1.5 billion – to promote human rights and democracy. And I want to congratulate you, [High] Commissioner [for Human Rights, Volker] Türk, for the work you are doing, and you can count on our support, but certainly, we need to do more.
We need to do much more, especially for the young people and the future generation. They need to understand and believe – understand and believe, these are two different things – that human rights define our humanity. There are no solutions without the protection of human rights. Young people have to understand that, but maybe they take it for granted, depending on where they live. But they have to have a broader view of the world and understand how most of the humankind is still living, deprived of these rights that we consider universal.
In fact, in its implementation, we have to invest much more political capital.
With human rights, we have new threats – climate change is one of them, the whole consequences of the war in Ukraine [is another]. Look, to block the export of grain, to deprive millions of people of food by putting a warship in front of the port where this grain has to be taken out. Is that not that a crime against humanity? Creating [hunger] for millions of people, [is] it not a clear attempt [against] human rights? Just imagine that: the grain is here, the people who want to eat the grain are there and, in the middle, there is a warship preventing them from taking this grain to their dishes. This is an attempt against human rights. A violent, blatant one that we have to be, at least, aware of and denounce it [at] every occasion we have.
I am going to finish where the Universal Declaration begins, and it begins with the sacred words, that have to be in the sacred books for every human being independently of their religion: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”.
“All human beings are born free” – my god, for how many years, [has] it not been true? – “and are equal in dignity and rights”.
We still have a long way [to go] to make this simple statement a reality for millions of people around the world. It should be our commitment.
Thank you very much for being here.
Links to the video:
- Español: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv_GAxJZB-8
- English (starting from 1:50): https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-246963