Campaigners have stepped up their efforts to allow Khaleda Zia, the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, to go abroad for urgent treatment. Zia, the 76-year-old leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the main rival of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has been serving a 10-year jail term for corruption. Zia is currently under house…
The re-emergence of the Taliban threatens the peace and security of the “whole world”, an event in Brussels was told. The stark warning came at a conference which discussed the rise of extremism in South Asia, particularly in the context of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. Junaid Qureshi, the Executive Director of European Foundation for South Asian…
The EU institutions have been urged to act urgently in the case of Pakistan’s alleged continued human rights abuses. A coalition of respected human rights NGOs, coming together under the umbrella of Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF), delivered a letter to the EU’s High Representative Josep Borrell, calling for the suspension of Pakistan’s GSP+ status, which…
MEPs have adopted an urgency resolution on the blasphemy laws in Pakistan, in particular the case of Shagufta Kausar and Shafqat Emmanuel sentenced to death in 2014 on blasphemy charges, calling on the Pakistani authorities to immediately and unconditionally release them and to overturn their sentence. The Renew Europe Group in the European Parliament strongly…
Human Rights Day 2020: religious persecution continues to blight the lives of hundreds of millions, writes Gary Cartwright. Human Rights Day is internationally observed each year on December 10th — the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which proclaims the inalienable rights which everyone is entitled…
By John Grogan In the seventeenth century the Mughal Emperor and patron of the arts, Javangir, famously exclaimed when he saw the valley of Kashmir, “If there is a heaven on earth it is here, it is here.” Sadly this weekend as the majority Muslim population in the area celebrate the festival of Eid-Al-Fitr tensions…
The rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in Kashmir was spelt out at a press briefing by a prominent human rights activist born and raised in the heart of the conflict zone. Speaking in Brussels on Thursday, Masood Iqbal Mir said, “This situation is grave and urgent action is needed.” Mir told reporters at the Brussels press club, “My family, including…
