'EU should be less coy about protecting human rights' - Comodini Cachia

MEP Therese Comodini Cachia said that the European Union is endowed with mechanisms that bind it to protect fundamental human rights.

“It does not need more mechanisms to do so, but it does require more courage to be less coy in using those mechanisms," Comodini Cachia said, speaking at a plenary debate on the situation of fundamental rights in the European Union, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Comodini Cachia, a human rights lawyer stated that protection of fundamental rights is one of the basic values upon which the EU is founded and that this value represents respect towards the person and their dignity.

She called on leaders to refrain from using political rhetoric to justify their actions.

"There is often an abyss between words and actions and within that abyss, politicians tend to loose the moral high ground as well as the courage to take decisions in line with basic principles, without which they would be eating away at their citizens rights," Comodini Cachia said.

She further acknowledged that economic fragility, social pressures and emergency situations make political responsibility to respect human rights more difficult, but stressed that moral insecurity and lack of political responsibility are often the true reasons behind violations.

Comodini Cachia stressed that European citizens expect the European Institutions to take action to protect them from the adoption of practices of bad governance and of methods that violate the principles of accountability, transparency, social justice and solidarity often adopted by their own national governments.

“This would strengthen people's resolve to stand up against the violation of their rights,” she said.