Joint Public Statement: The EU should prioritize human rights in deepening relations with LAC

17 April 2023

April 17, 2023

Originally published on the EULAT Network website.

Joint Public Statement is available to download in English and Spanish.

“Human rights should lie at the centre of the forthcoming Joint Communication and of EU-LAC relations, mainstreamed across all issues and countries, not only as one of the multiple priorities.”

Ahead of the Joint Communication by the European Union (EU) on its relations with Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) countries, strengthened by the EU-CELAC Summit in July this year, the signatory organizations urge the EU and its member states to prioritize human rights in EU-LAC relations, at the EU-CELAC summit, while also ensuring the genuine consultation of civil society throughout relations between the two regions as they deepen their ties.

At a crucial moment where human rights are embattled in both regions and worldwide, the EU and its member states must redouble efforts to address the impact of human rights violations and discriminatory practices in LAC, empowering rights holders to claim their rights (protecting and expanding civic space) and calling out duty-bearing states to fulfill their obligations, guided by the principles of universality, indivisibility, equality and non-discrimination, participation and accountability.

In the forthcoming Joint Communication, as well as in the lead-up to and during the EU-CELAC Summit, the EU and its member states should send a clear political signal of their commitment to human rights and ensure a comprehensive, robust and strategic approach to some of the most pressing human rights situations in the region, as well as protect human rights defenders and civil society, in line with the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders. At the same time, at the global level, the EU and LAC must rise to the challenge to jointly defend and promote regional and international human rights systems as they increasingly come under attack, reversing years of gains.