10 December 2021

December 10th is ‘Human Rights Day’. On this day in 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. It is very cynical that today of all days it was announced that Wikileaks whistleblower Julian Assange may be extradited to the United States, as the BBC just announced. Less than a year ago a British judge ruled against the extradition, but the US won the case on appeal, and will thus soon have its prey in its hands. The many incriminating proofs of US crimes documented by Wikileaks were many bridges too far for Washington; Joe Biden also spoke of the whistleblower as a ‘hi-tech terrorist’.

And the European Union? Its Commission did not let Human Rights Day pass unnoticed, and yesterday announced the Global Europe Human Rights and Democracy programme for the period 2021-2027, worth no less than €1.5 billion! From the statement of the ‘foreign commissioner’ of the EU, the Spanish socialist Josep Borrell, one could perhaps deduce that the EU will do something for Assange with a little of that money:

“Courageous people of all kinds fight daily for civil liberties, for independent media and to protect democratic institutions, often at great personal risk.”

However, there is absolutely no evidence of this, and everything suggests that with this one and a half billion euro, the European Commission has created a pot to carry out propaganda about the high values of the Union, while paying spin doctors who present the criminal action of Frontex to protect Fortress Europe as a humanitarian act (‘against the people smugglers’).

Isn’t that too negative about the EU?  But have you ever heard that the EU acted against Poland because it provided torture chambers to the CIA? Torture is one of the worst infringements of human rights and the rule of law! But in that case, not at the instigation of Putin or Lukashenko…

Herman Michiel, www.andereuropa.org