Thank you for the invitation to contribute to this important conference. It is vital that we are vigilant on protecting human rights and that when necessary we are ready to campaign to protect them. I'm sure that this conference will raise awareness of the current situation and mobilise people.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights gives us rights, regardless of race, colour, sex, language, religion or political opinion. The European Convention on Human Rights has similar safeguards. But the reality is that governments find exceptional circumstances and reasons for not respecting those rights - often in the name of our security.
We do face new challenges - we do have to find new ways of combating the threats that face us. But we have to be realistic. The greatest threat to our security today is climate change, which threatens the entire planet now, not in the future. That should be our priority. Yet there is more and more legislation aimed at protecting against other threats which are actually less immediate and less certain.
And I believe that we have to discuss human rights in terms of the rights of people in their everyday lives. These conference sessions are being held across Britain and this one, of course, in Wales. I am disappointed that there is no opportunity here for people to speak Welsh - one of the two official languages in Wales. We have fought hard for decades to get official acknowledgment of the Welsh language and to give the right to people to use the language of their choice. That campaign has led to many, many people being fined and imprisoned. Great progress has been made, but there is still not equality.
The title of this session is "Human Rights, Democracy and Governance". Governance is a major factor. You will not be surprised that as a member of Plaid Cymru, I believe that the princilpe of human rights also applies to the right to self-determination. I welcome the constitutional debate which is taking place in Wales now about how our nation develops. The All Wales Convention is giving the opportunity for every person here to join in the discussion and contribute to building the kind of society we want in the future. The Convention was set up by the 'One Wales' Welsh Assembly Government to ensure that any developments in terms of the powers of our National Assembly are progressed with the agreement of the majority of the people of Wales.
This contrasts so sharply with the way that major issues have been dealt with on a British level. Millions of people protesting on the streets against the attack and invasion of Iraq could not sway the Labour government from its government from its disastrous course of action against the people of that country. And that is just one example.
I look forward to the referendum in Wales on further powers for the Assembly which will be held before 2011. This is a new kind of governance. Certainly there is a different political culture in new devolved governments.
As a Member of the European Parliament I have been dismayed at the extent to which our rights have been weakened in comparison with those of other EU Member States. The European Charter of Fundamental Rightswas an essential part of the draft EU constitution and now the Lisbon Treaty. It sets out the basic rights that we can expect as European citizens. It expands on previous charters by defining the right to choose an occupation, the right to education and guaranteeing the rights of the child. But the Labour government chose to opt out of this - largely because of the additional rights it gave to workers.
In much the same way, the UK government has previously chosen to opt-out of the working time directive. This is European legislation that limits the time that can be spent at work by providing an average limit of 48 hours a week over a set period of time. In December, I voted for an end to the possibility of an opt-out in the European Parliament. I was delighted that the majority supported an end to the opt-out, a result which will stop people being forced to work dangerously long hours.
One in ten people in employment in Wales currently work longer than the 48 hour working week dealt with in the directive, often as a result of the deliberate exploitation of workers. The UK is still resisting the result of the vote.
These are matters relating to the way we are governed and how it affects our everyday lives. But as a long term peace and anti nuclear campaigner I have also seen the way that laws have been introduced to restrict - at best - the right to protest. I spoke at a demonstration in Cardiff at the end of last year on the planned privatisation of military training at a military academy in St Athan. I have never seen so many police in my life - and several police were filming everyone who was there. It was extremely intimidating and many people on the march were upset at the intrusive way in which it was done. We never got an explanation about why this march was policed in that way and for what reason. Everyone there felt that we were being treated as a dangerous threat rather than people campaigning peacefully for peace.
This has so often been the case when we have protested against the danger of nuclear weapons. It happened at Greenham Common and it happens now. People are denied the right to conscientious objection in peacetimes in terms of paying taxes which are spent on war. I applaud the brave actions of the Peace Tax Seven, individuals who have been withholding the proportion of their tax which would go towards military spending. They have been taken to court and could even face imprisonment for their beliefs.
Plaid in Westminster has continually voted against legislation by the government to impose laws that breach our basic civil liberties, including identity cards. I receive more and more letters from constituents who feel that the government is invading our right to privacy, such as the proposals to store data on electronic messages.
On a European level, there was a committee set up to investigate the violations of human rights committed in the context of the fight against terrorism, including the use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners.
In January, the European Parliament supported the proposal to introduce biometrics in all passports and travel documents. Two fingerprints will be taken and stored on a chip in your passport by 2012 despite the fact that the effectiveness of biometrics is not yet proven in the fight against terrorism. Proposals to fingerprint children as young as six were thrown out, but the use of this data to treat people as potential suspects is a matter of great concern. In the same way that the US is demanding all passenger records is unacceptable.
I believe that what we have to do is work together at all levels against measures that will invade our privacy but not makes us safer. We all want to use new technologies to fight crime and are willing to sacrifice an element of privacy and liberty to do that. But the balance has tipped hugely the wrong way. At a European Parliament level I believe that the time has come for us to have a full Human Rights committee. Currently there is only a sub-committee with no voting rights. Despite increasing support from across the political spectrum, this has repeatedly been refused. A Human Rights committee is essential to constantly monitor the rights of all of us as individuals and the need for national and international security in its real sense. With an election to the European Parliament in June this year, we need to be campaigning to ensure that support for such a committee is one to which all parties will make a commitment.
This will bring about more openness, more accountability and more democracy which brings me back to the point I made earlier. The key issue for us in Wales is the development of our democracy in a way in which we are effectively represented and protected so we can build the kind of society we want.
