MEPs deplore human rights violations and all forms of political repression in Iran. On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution taking stock of the human rights situation in Iran.
Iran must stop criminalising the work of women’s rights defenders, say MEPs.
The European Parliament urge Iran to stop criminalising the work of women’s rights defenders, including the work done by those peacefully protesting against the compulsory law on wearing the hijab, and calls on the authorities in Iran to abolish this practice. MEPs ask all EU countries with a diplomatic presence in the country to use all the diplomacy tools in their power to support and protect human rights defenders on the ground.
MEPs also call on the Iranian authorities to immediately release all human rights defenders and journalists detained and sentenced merely for exercising their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. They recall that at least eight journalists are currently in detention in Iran and that many have been systematically targeted by the authorities through criminal investigations, asset freezes, arbitrary arrest and surveillance, including those working for the BBC Persian service. According to the NGO Iran Human Rights, in 2018 the second highest number of people in the world were executed in Iran.
Finally, the resolution, adopted by a show of hands, reiterates the European Parliament’s call on the government of Iran to immediately and unconditionally release human rights lawyer and Sakharov Prize Laureate Nasrin Sotoudeh, who earlier this week was sentenced 38 years in prison and 148 lashes by an Iranian court.
