Sarah speaking about the role of the EU in prosecuting war crimes in Darfur

Speech by Sarah Ludford delivered to European Parliament on Wed 7th May 2008

Mr President, I say firstly - and directly to the Commission and the Council - that the EU needs to give serious support to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to implement the indictment of two individuals who have allegedly perpetrated human rights abuses in Darfur, one of them a serving minister in the Sudanese Government. The EU response has so far been weak, which, considering that we claim the credit - or much of the credit - for creating the ICC, is pretty shameful.

We even risk being outflanked by the United States. In an interesting speech a fortnight ago, John Bellinger, the chief lawyer in the State Department, said that the US was willing, without changing its ideological position towards the ICC, to give practical support to its work, and he specifically mentioned Darfur. So I think we should get our skates on in terms of supporting the ICC over Darfur.

Talking of the United States, we have a prospect, whoever wins the presidential election, of an end to the abuses - or at least the worst abuses - of the war on terror. All the candidates are committed to closing Guantánamo, but the EU has to help by following through on its call for closure and leading an international initiative to resettle detainees who are not going to get a fair trial. But along with that - and I agree with those who say that, to be credible in the world, the EU must respect human rights internally - we must have the accountability that still has not been delivered for collusion by European governments with extraordinary rendition - which, translated, means kidnap and torture.