A matter of act

Vandaag sprak Amnesty-directeur Eduard Nazarski tijdens het Movies that Matter Festival op Amnesty’s A Matter of Act Night. Voor dit speciale filmprogramma selecteert Amnesty Nederland tien bijzondere documentaires meer dan tien bijzondere mensenrechtenverdedigers. Deze films tonen de dappere strijd van gewone mensen tegen onrecht en onderdrukking en laten zien onder welke grote gevaren en bedreigingen de activisten hun werk moeten doen.

Door: Eduard Nazarski, directeur van Amnesty International Nederland

Mid-March, I was in Greece. On the island of Lesbos, in Athens and on in Idomeni on the border with Macedonia, I witnessed the reality of the European Union in the 21st century. Which can only be called shocking, in its degrading conditions. And grimly painful, in the bitter anonymity of these refugees and migrants. What is it in our world that so many people can be so easily robbed not only of their homes and belongings, but also of their identities, their loves, their aspirations and achievements?

This is not the fault of individual states such as Greece or Macedonia. Lesbos’ mayor Spyros Galinos pressed on me the notion that not the refugees are the problem, the bombs are. His words are a far cry from European politics. For European governments, the refugees are the problem. The heaps of people in leaky tents or windy halls, with just a few toilets and often no showers at all, with little food and lots of mud. It’s not their predicament that is considered a challenge to a dignified life, it’s they themselves who are regarded as a challenge to the European system.

Historically speaking, Europe is a continent of human rights defence, the lands of Grotius and John Locke and Thomas Payne. It’s in Paris that the Universal Declaration on Human Rights was adopted, in Geneva that the Refugees Convention and humanitarian law were baptized, in The Hague that the international tribunals and the International Criminal Court were set up. It’s the European Union that produced the Guidelines for Human Rights Defenders, first adopted in 2004 and arguably the best statement of principles and practice available on this issue.

Since 18 March, the EU has a deal with Turkey. It is an arrangement fraught with insecurity. More importantly, it is very sloppy about human rights principles. What solution can it bring for refugees apart from a not so sophisticated horsetrading? And if this is Europe stating that the principles for the good times can be set aside in bad times, what message will that convey to the partners of the EU’s human rights dialogue?

Once again, the world is divided in those with and without a name. Once again, the moment is that for human rights defenders. With some luck, the defenders are not anonymous. They have means to express themselves, they are in the spotlights at times, they have influence. Of course, overcoming anonymity has for many defenders come with a prize. They are targeted because they are perceived as a danger to state or society. They are persecuted precisely because of their profile. But to put it cruelly, there is a better chance of Europe being woken up by the plight of human rights defenders than by the anonimity of the masses at their borders.

Through human rights defenders, the many people who care about refugees can reach out to the innumerable individuals who are not given that opportunities. Human rights defenders make us part of a community. Their work is an object lesson for us as well as for policy makers: not to give in when human rights principles are at stake, not to give up when human rights are most needed, not to give away fellow human beings who are bereft of their names.

Text from a speech at A Matter of Act, the program for human rights defenders at the Movies that Matters film festival in The Hague.