The European Union passed a resolution on October 29th that calls for all European countries to:
“drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection, and consequently prevent extradition or rendition by third parties, in recognition of his status as whistle-blower and international human rights defender.”
The vote will do little in the short-term and will not help Snowden much because each country has to make an individual decision to grant him asylum or residence.
The narrow vote of 285 to 281 serves only as a symbolic victory. Nonetheless it is still a victory worth celebrating. Snowden himself went as far as to call the victory a “game changer” on Twitter. In addition, Snowden’s lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck had this to say about the victory:
“… it is an overdue step and we urge the member states to act now to implement the resolution.”
The hope of any person who wishes to protect whistle-blowers and human rights defenders is that the United States’ government will back off from their ongoing witch hunt of Edward Snowden after what the EU stated. White House Spokesperson, Ned Price, promptly destroyed that hope by saying:
“Mr. Snowden is accused of leaking classified information and faces felony charges here in the United States. As such, he should be returned to the US as soon as possible, where he will be accorded full due process.”
The United States must realize that as a nation it cannot yell “FREEDOM” at every other country while treating people who expose its own abuses so poorly. We as Americans have to make it clear that we will not tolerate this disgraceful treatment of a human rights defender. Take action, call your Senator and tell him/her you won’t vote for a Senator that doesn’t support whistle-blowers. When the people are united, they can be an amazing force for good.
If you would like more from Edward Snowden check out these statements he made when talking about why he decided to become a hero.
Featured Image via Flickr available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
