On Thursday, 14 March MEPs called on the Iranian authorities to release "immediately and unconditionally" all detained human rights defenders, prisoners of conscience and journalists, including 2012 Sakharov Prize winner Nasrin Sotoudeh (see EUROPE 12212/37).
The joint resolution of the Greens/EFA, GUE/NGL, ALDE, S&D, ECR and EPP groups on Iran – including the case of human rights defenders – adopted in plenary, urges the authorities to stop harassing human rights defenders and women, to stop considering their activities as criminal offences and to guarantee fair trials.
MEPs recall that respect for human rights is an essential component of the development of relations between the Union and Iran. They also recommend that an ad hoc delegation of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights be sent to Iran before the end of the parliamentary term, i.e. in the next few weeks, "to visit imprisoned human rights defenders and meet the Iranian authorities". (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)