Human dignity

In the past days I have wondered what the true meaning is of words such as 'Human dignity' and 'Fundamental Human Rigths' is.

First our Dutch Minister for Integration and Immigration said in a letter to the Dutch Parliament in which she announce to lift the existing moratorium on the deportation of gay and lesbian asylum seekers to Iran:

"It appears that there are no cases of an execution on the basis of the sole fact that someone is homosexual … For homosexual men and women it is not totally impossible to function in society, although they should be wary of coming out of the closet too openly.”

A similar decission was made for Christian people coming from Iran. Mrs. Verdonk not only based her decission on wrong information and incorrect quotations of respected Human Rights organisations (such as Human Rights Watch), moreover she ignores information that has constantly been made available to her. She is well known for appearing is a 'tough lady', recently she sent back a young girl from Kosovo who wanted to finish her study in the Netherlands and then return to Pristina. According to laws and procedures she did right, according to the opinion in the Dutch society she made a big mistake, with not showing any dignity.

I do understand that the Netherlands is holding a constringent assylum policy, but I can not combine this with the international respected values of 'Fundamental Human Rights' in cases like this. Because it means that we can send homosexuals back if they don't have to fear immediate treat for their life, but only have to be careful 'with coming-out'? Mrs. Verdonk should know what this means for the human dignity of these people. And then I don't even mention the risk for life that people do face! Mrs. Verdonk says that her decission is based on meetings between the European Commission and the Iranian government. Apparently she grants this government more credibility than many respected human rights organisations, and also many Iranian assylum seekers whom are doing everything to make people aware of what is really going on in Iran.

Probably I am even more ashamed of our Minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Bot. It is well known that he has a respected carreer as diplomat. Unfortunately his diplomatic skills still reflect on his functioning as Minister: Mr. Bot does not react at all on human rights violations like this. He is sacrificing values of which the Dutch society is proud, for the sake of.... we can only guess. During the past municipality elections in the Netherlands it was said that the Dutch electorate lost its 'authority and respect'. I also think it lost its own dignity.

It is good that Members of our Parliament have raised questions and that the issue will be discussed later this week. It is already clear to me that both our Ministers will have to confess mistakes they made.

Another side of the story. A quote from BBC News, not even one hour after the news of the death of Mr. Milosevic was announced:

"European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he hoped the death would help Serbia finally to come to terms with its past and allow it to look to the future."

Not much human dignity neither. But this time I am confused myself. I don't have any respect for Mr. Milosevic and will certainly not let a single tear for his death. But should the concept of dignity be so tangible? I am afraid that it is harder to grant respect in the cases that we want to talk about human dignity if we are not consequently practising it. Maybe Mr. Solana could have waited another day with saying this?