Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2014-09-18-Speech-4-074-000"
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"en.20140918.10.4-074-000"2
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"Madam President, in July we watched with horror as the Azerbaijani Government waged war on its civil society. It has targeted some of the country’s most prominent human rights defenders, imprisoning them on the basis of trumped-up and politically motivated charges. I name in particular Leyla Yunus, Arif Yunus, Rasul Jafarov and Intigam Aliyev. We need a strong condemnation of the detention of Azerbaijani human rights defenders in order to raise their profile and offer them protection, and for the same reason I am proud to say that the Green Group has nominated Leyla Yunus for this year’s Sakharov Prize.
I also note the most recent news that the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture has decided to suspend its visit to Azerbaijan due to obstructions it encountered in carrying out its mandate under the Protocol Against Torture, of which Azerbaijan is a signatory.
In our own resolution we call for all bogus charges against the human rights activists to be dropped and urge the Azerbaijani authorities to end the practice of selected criminal prosecution and imprisonment of critics of the government. We call on the Azerbaijani authorities to halt all actions aimed at supressing freedom of express and assembly.
In relation to our own EU institutions, we call on the Council and Commission and our High Representative to ask for the immediate release of all Azerbaijani human rights defenders and to apply the ‘more for more’ principle with a specific focus on their situation. We also insist that negotiations towards a new strategic modernisation partnership with Azerbaijan should be put on hold until these minimum steps are taken, and that the advancement of relations between the EU and Azerbaijan should be clearly linked to practical steps by the government to improve its abysmal record.
The case of Leyla Yunus was brought to my attention by a constituent who knows her well and who has told me of the terrible suffering that Dr Yunus is undergoing. It is too personal to be detailed here but it should not be forgotten and it should motivate us to condemn the actions of the Azerbaijani Government in the strongest terms and to demand the same standards of human rights that we ourselves would expect as EU citizens."@en1
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