Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards

The European Parliament Elections of 2014 are coming on 22 May and the Human Rights and Democracy Network [HRDN] has launched a 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 Parliaments 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.

For more information contact Claire Ivers representative of the HRDN troika, ivers-HRW[at]hrdn.eu

via HRDN Stand 4 Human Rights campaign launch – European Parliament Elections 2014.

This entry was posted on January 21, 2014 at 18:12 and is filed under EU, human rights, Human Rights Defenders.

Tags: campaign, elections, EP, European Parliament, Foreign Policy, HRDN, human rights, Human Rights and Democracy Network, Human Rights Defenders, members of the european parliament, MEP, Stand 4 Human Rights, the European Parliament