Oacceptabelt diskriminera flickor och funktionshindrad

Offren för könsselektiva aborter i världen i dag är i överväldigande grad flickor. Vi måste våga se att dessa aborter också finns i våra välfärdsstater, och ta ställning mot dem – som vi redan gjort i Europarådet.

Min starka övertygelse är att vi dessutom ska inta samma inställning när det gäller värdet, inte bara hos flickor, utan också hos handikappade flickor och pojkar. Detta var mitt budskap i dag när jag talade i Strasbourg angåendediskriminering av flickor och funktionshindrade.

I vissa europeiska länder, sorteras över 90% av fostren med diagnosen Downs syndrom bort rutinmässigt före födelsen. Dessvärre tror jag att vi har vi en mycket längre väg att gå tills vi enade kan ta ställning mot diskriminering i denna fråga, än vad som var fallet kring de könsselektiva aborterna.

Under torsdagen anordnar EPP-gruppen (som Kristdemokraterna tillhör) en konferens i Strasbourg på temat "Eugenics and human rights" (Utsortering och mänskliga rättigheter). Till den parlamentariska församlingen överlämnar en motion för att påbörja en process gällande utsortering och diskriminering av personer med funktionshinder liknande den som tidigare gjorts rörande sk flickaborter.

Tal av Mikael Oscarsson i Europeiska rådets parlamentariska församling i Strasbourg den 25 juni 2012

Mr president, dear colleges,

It is in the Christian tradition and in the advancement of Humanistic values, we find the foundation for human dignity, and our civilization.

As we say there is a purpose to man, the pure existence of human life is telling us about its own value. I say this as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly, but also as a father-to-be anew.

I would say that the life of every person – how ever great or small, what ever sex, health status, religion or nationality – is sacred, as the European Convention on human rights states: “Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person…”

One of the decisions we have made in the Parliamentary Assembly – out of this common ground – is the protection of the unborn girls against sex discrimination.

This we shall be proud of.

I certainly would want us to take a similar stand on the value of, not only girls, but also of disabled girls, and boys. Articles 10 of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Disabled Persons declares that the “effective enjoyment” of this “right to live” must be ensured to “persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others”.

In technologically advanced societies, people with genetic disabilities increasingly suffer from a widespread prejudice. In some European countries, over 90% of fetus diagnosed as Down syndrome are now eliminated before birth.

The victims of selective abortions in the western world today are mostly that of the deformed. The intentional abortion of disabled is due to the preference for the healthy, the almost perfect offspring. The main cause to this preference is the low value associated with the disabled.

But without the girl – maybe the girl with Downs syndrom – or without the boy – with his intellectual disability. Without those persons, and without our stand for their right to life – we have betrayed the Convention.

As is said in the preamble - realization of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms -contributes to the greater unity among the European nations. As we decided on sex discrimination let us decide on discrimination of the disabled and deformed.

Thank you

The Holocaust, Raoul Walleberg and our reponsibility to act today

Inlägg i allmänpolitiska debatten på Europarådet i Strasbourg 23 januari 2012

Mr President, Dear colleges,

70 yers ago. In January, 1942, fifteen Nazi leaders came together in Wannsee, outside Berlin, to coordinate the so-called ”final solution”. This was the attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe, an estimated 11 million people.

Now listen to this: In January 1942 ­– 80 % of the people that was killed by the Nazi’s were still alive. 80 %! December 31 that same year – 80 % of the people who was murdered in the holocaust had been killed.

There was a time to move, a window of opportunity. The countries of Europe cold have opened their borders for the Jewish refuges in 1933 -- when Hitler came to power -- or in 1938 -- after the Chrystal night. Or at least in 1942.

1938 all free countries meet in Évian in France – summoned by the US president Franklin Roosevelt – to discuss the humanitarian problem of the Jewish refugees.
As Hitler had annexed Austria and hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees were seeking a safe haven, the free world knew that something had to be done.

It soon became clear that the conference was not going to solve anything. To read the statements of the delegates today fills you with shame and indignation. Here was the powerful of the nations, and not one lifted a finger to rescue the persecuted. And – shamefully – my country, Sweden, is included among them.

But! – there always seems to be lights in the darkness.

One of them is Raoul Wallenberg. He was the young Swede, only 32 years of age, sent to Budapest in the end of WWII in order to use passports from neutral Sweden to protect Jews threatened with immediate deportation to the death camps. He and his collaborators saved tens of thousands of Jews.

Raoul Wallenberg risked his life in the struggle against one of the horrifying ideologies of the 20th century: Nazism. He was killed by the other: Communism.

This year, 2012, is the centennial of Raouls birth, on the 4th of August, and his memory is celebrated as a symbol of courage and unselfishness all over the world.

The legacy of Raoul and countless other men and women who performed heroic acts of rescuing the persecuted must not die.

Dear colleges,

You and I must not let the Holocaust be denied – trivialized – or forgotten. We must not let world leaders repeat it, even as we know that there are those who want to.

And we must also engage against persecutions of today that meet other minorities, such as the Christian minorities in Egypt and Pakistan -- or Nigeria where Boko Haram wants a religiously cleansed North. Now is our window of opportunity open.

Mikael Oscarsson
Riksdagsledamot, delegat till Europarådet