International

The European Parliament doesn’t have much influence over foreign relations, which is why the SP’s team in Brussels has in general paid the issues involved little attention. There are, however, exceptions. Last week we had a constructive dialogue with High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton’s team – known in the jargon as her ‘services’ – on freedom of religion and conviction, a subject on which I was in 2000 awarded my doctorate. At the time I was employed by the Dutch civil service in a capacity which focused on foreign relations, so in the EP I am almost always drawn on for this expertise and one which leads to a number of concrete activities, such as last week’s meeting.

The freedom of people to determine for themselves to which religion or non-religious belief system they subscribe and to give expression to this belief is not only in itself an enormously important human right, but is often a good litmus test for respect for other fundamental human rights.

Late last year I established, along with Peter van Dalen, MEP for the small Dutch political party the Christian Union, a working party dedicated to the defence of freedom of belief by means of the EU’s external relations and those of its member states. One of our first activities, together with a group of like-minded MEPs, was to draw up a commentary on the guidelines on freedom of religion produced by Ashton’s services. These guidelines would serve as a handbook for diplomats in their work in countries outside the EU. Via our meeting we tried to ensure, therefore, that the diplomats would quickly have the best possible guidelines, guidelines which would be of practical use in the field as well as being able to count on broad political support.

The proposed guidelines represented a decent start, but weren’t always formulated with sufficient care and precision. One of the aspects which we felt needed more attention, was the right to change one’s beliefs or entirely to reject belief. A great many problems occur in countries where it is legally impossible to change or reject your beliefs, which also has consequences for your chances of marrying, or receiving a passport or other civil documents. In addition we explained that you should have the right to practice a religion in company with others and to set up your own organisations to that end. Even in eastern European countries this right is restricted and in other parts of the world it can simply be impossible, for example, to establish places of worship. The definitive guidelines will be determined in the next few months, but I am confident that they will not only be of good quality, but also that established in this way they will enable the diplomats to deal effectively with this complex material and tackle abuses quickly and effectively.