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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 19 Mar 1997

Vol. 476 No. 5

Written Answers - Human Rights.

Michael Woods

Ceist:

18 Dr. Woods asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will clarify the non derogability of human rights under all circumstances, in view of the contradiction contained in the EU Morocco Association Agreement between the human rights protection in Article 2 and the provision in Article 87 to the effect that nothing in the agreement shall prevent a contracting part from taking any measures which it considers essential to its own security which undermines the established principle that human rights shall constitute an essential element of all EU agreements with third countries and in relation to all EU-Mediterranean Association Agreements. [7453/97]

Human rights obligations are fundamental to all the new generation association agreements of the European Union. The human rights clause in Article 2 and the other clause to which the Deputy refers, Article 87, are standard in all of these agreements. The overwhelming importance of the human rights clause and the extent to which it underlies all subsequent commitments is shown by the fact it is placed in Article 2, at the very beginning of the association agreement.

Neither the association agreement with Morocco nor the other association agreements are human rights instruments in the sense of setting human rights standards for compliance by the acceding parties. However, nothing in Article 87 of the agreement with Morocco, or the comparable clauses in other agreements, releases the signatory State from its obligation to comply with the fundamental norms of international law as laid out in instruments to which it has acceded. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, like other international conventions to which Morocco is party, involves undertakings provided by Morocco to the United Nations. The covenant also stipulates that parties can in no circumstances derogate from a number of rights set out in it. The association agreement, for its part, establishes the principle that human rights are an integral and fundamental part of the dialogue between the EU and Morocco. The agreement gives each side the right to raise the other's fulfilment of its international obligations.
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