MEPs are being asked to pledge their commitment for human rights ahead of the 2014 European Parliament elections. The Human Rights and Democracy Network (HRDN) is launching today, 10 December, its European elections campaign: Stand 4 Human Rights.
The HRDN is an informal group of 47 NGOs operating at the EU level in the areas of human rights, democracy and peace building.
The Stand 4 Human Rights campaign centres around five pledges, which the HRDN is asking sitting MEPs and candidates to sign up to – and in so doing affirm that they ‘stand for human rights’ and will actively work to strengthen the European Parliament’s human rights approach should they be elected in the 2014 elections. The pledges outline straightforward actions that future MEPs can commit to undertaking:
1: to promote the EU’s founding principles and objectives of its human rights and democracy policy
2: to publicly and privately raise human rights abuses and cases of individuals at risk
3: to regularly meet with NGOs and human rights defenders
4: to support the improvement of the European Parliament’s work on human rights and democracy such as by actively supporting the establishment of a fully-fledged human rights committee
5: to improve transparency within the European Parliament and other EU institutions.
The full text of these pledges can be accessed on the website accompanying the campaign: www.stand4humanrights.eu. The website also contains a list of sitting MEPs who have already signed the pledge, alongside their quotes in support of the campaign, as well as videos of human rights defenders calling on the EU to reinforce its efforts to promote human rights and democracy.
The launch of the campaign coincides with the UN Human Rights Day and a debate on the Annual Human Rights report at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
For further info or comment please contact: Elena Zacharenko, eza@irct.eu, Mariana Rocha, mariana.rocha@iphronline.org or Claire Ivers (representative of the HRDN troika), ivers-HRW@hrdn.eu.