MEPs call for elections in Democratic Republic of Congo, condemn violence in Nigeria and urge China to release human rights activists.
MEPs call for the release of Vietnamese blogger Nguyen Van Hoa, the reinstatement of Cambodian opposition lawmakers, and the decriminalisation of miscarriage and abortion in El Salvador.
We are alarmed to learn that a crackdown on protesters, human rights defenders, student activists, journalists, attorneys and academics continues in Sudan, with the authorities using arbitrary arrests and excessive force to deal with peaceful protests against rising food prices."
During a hearing in the Human Rights Subcommittee on 24 January, Chiygoz and Umerov, deputy chairs of the the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatar community's self-governing body that was outlawed by Russian authorities, denounced the situation in Russian-annexed territories, where Ukrainian citizens are subject to politically motivated arrests, sham trials and long sentences by Russian authorities.
"I express my strongest condemnation of this attack on the Save the Children's office in Jalalabad. I am very saddened by this brutal attack which targets an organisation committed to improving the lives and well being of children in Afghanistan and around the world."
"On 2 January 2018, a rebel-controlled criminal court in Sanaa sentenced the Baha'i prisoner Hamid bin Haydara to death for allegedly collaborating with Israel and forging official documents. His execution, the date of which is unknown, is to be carried out in public. The sentence is the result of a fundamentally flawed process. I therefore call on the responsible Houthi leaders to make sure that Mr. Haydara's death sentence is repealed and that he and the other Baha'i prisoners are released."
MEPs call for elections in Democratic Republic of Congo, condemn violence in Nigeria and urge China to release human rights activists.
"I am delighted about the release of Professor Merera Gudina, chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), because his arrest had been particularly shocking for the European Parliament. In fact, Professor Merera Gudina had been arrested almost immediately after attending a meeting in the European Parliament on 9 November 2016 where the human rights situation in Ethiopia was discussed. Apparently the only charge brought against him was that he had communicated with another Ethiopian opposition politician during his visit to Brussels."
... and we call on the Russian authorities to immediately ensure his release and to provide him with all the necessary safeguards in the current proceedings." Full text below