Sarah speaking about torture and the resettlement of Guantanamo Bay detainees

Speech by Sarah Ludford delivered to European Parliament on Wed 17th Dec 2008

Madam President, may I first of all endorse what my colleague Marco Cappato has said, applauding the action at the UN to try and achieve the decriminalization of homosexuality around the world. I also support that strongly.

I wanted to say a word - and I agree here with Hélène Flautre - about the absolutely scandalous absence of the Council and the presidency this morning at the Sakharov Prize ceremony. It was a great pity that the presidency was not present to hear the moving and courageous message from Hu Jia's wife. I think it might have led to certain thought-provoking reassessments of our relationship with China.

However, I also wanted to say a few words about torture. In June, the EU, on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, underlined the priority it attaches to the global eradication of torture, and encouraged all states to sign and ratify OPCAT, the optional protocol to the torture convention. So why have only nine EU States become full parties, with a further 12 in the process of ratification? What about the other six? Is there a common position? And, if not, why not?

In the same declaration in June, the EU condemned any action aimed at authorizing torture and other forms of ill-treatment. Why, nearly two years on, is there still no sufficient and comprehensive response to Parliament's report on European cooperation with extraordinary rendition? It is from Washington that the truth is now going to come out, just as it is coming out from the Senate Armed Services Committee. If EU States do not come clean, their dirty secrets will be revealed anyway from across the Atlantic.

Lastly, why are we not responding to the request from the US, and from the Portuguese Foreign Minister, to help resettle Guantánamo detainees? We should help incoming President Obama to close this appalling chapter in America's and Europe's history.