Following up on the arrest of human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, the Chair of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), Elena Valenciano (S&D, ES), made the following statement:
"I strongly condemn the arrest on 13 June 2016 of Nabeel Rajab, who is a leading human rights defender and President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. Mr Rajab was once again arrested for simply exercising his right to freedom of expression and for his peaceful human rights work. This arrest constitutes a blatant violation of Bahrain's commitments under international human rights law..."Parliament condemns the banning of the Mejlis, the representative body of ethnic Crimean Tatars, urges the immediate release of all protestors arrested in an April electoral reform demonstration in The Gambia, and calls for a thorough investigation into the transparency of the re-election of President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh in Djibouti, in three resolutions voted on Thursday.
Parliament deplores the worsening climate for opposition politicians and human rights activists in Cambodia, calls on Tajikistan to allow opposition groups, lawyers and journalists to operate freely, and urges Vietnam to put an immediate end to all harassment, intimidation, and persecution of political activists, journalists, bloggers, dissidents and human rights defenders, in three resolutions voted on Thursday.
The next meeting of the Subcommittee on Human Rights will take place on Wednesday 15 June 2016, from 9.00 - 12.30 and from 15.00 - 18.30 in meeting room PHS 4B001.
Representatives of NGOs as well as other organisations are requested to accede to the EU Transparency Register and follow the procedures therein for access to the European Parliament.The hearing focused on the plight of various minorities inSyria and Iraq and also on possible action to be taken by the internationalcommunity and the EU.
For the full press statement see below.
Chair of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights, Elena Valenciano (S&D, ES) made the following statement on the release of Khadija Ismayilova:
"I am very happy to learn that yesterday Khadija Ismayilova was released from prison. This good news should be a good signal for freedom of expression in Azerbaijan...."
Full statement below