madam president thank you to the rapporteur for producing an excellent report
baroness ashton i am extremely glad that you are now in office because your record has shown that you have absolutely no hesitation in standing up for people who have no voice and whose rights are taken away
human rights of course know no national boundaries
they know no national borders
they are universal
yet the universality of that respect is failing across the world
we have agreements with countries such as the african caribbean and pacific countries where the rights of lesbian gay bisexual and transgender people are criminalised
they are not respected and indeed even within the cotonou agreement there is a question as to whether there should be respect for the rights of lgbt people
this is why we need a strong human rights directorate within the external action service to ensure this policy coherence across development trade and foreign affairs as you said in your statement
we have free trade agreements where article two the human rights clause has never actually been enforced
parliament makes recommendations and i am afraid the council backs away
so we look to you to give a very strong lead in defending human rights with all those countries that we have relations with
i should also like to express congratulations on the adoption by the council in two thousand and nine of the lgbt toolkit
the toolkit enables the eu's external action service to work for the fundamental rights of lesbian gay bisexual and transgender people
i wish you well i trust you and this house has every confidence in you
