Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-01-15-Speech-4-192"
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"en.20090115.17.4-192"2
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"− Mr President, the story of Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize-winning lawyer, the first Muslim woman and first Iranian to receive the prize, may be well known to most of us here today. She was the first female judge in her country but was forced to resign due to the Iranian revolution.
She defended the rights of Iranian women and children, fighting to change divorce and inheritance laws in Iran. She stood up to defend religious minorities and their rights, and most recently she has defended seven members of the Bahá’í faith who have been collectively arrested and who face persecution like many others of faith in Iran. But it is her work on human rights and her courage and determination which has gained her the respect of all of us in the Chamber.
She, along with other human rights activists, bravely founded the Centre for the Defence of Human Rights in Tehran. Its purpose was to report human rights violations in Iran, to provide representation of political prisoners and to help their families. However, right from the start, the authorities have tried to close the office down. Those who work there have been threatened, imprisoned and intimidated. Shirin Ebadi has personally faced numerous death threats, and the international community has, for some time, expressed its concern for her safety. Then, just before Christmas, as those at the centre were about to commemorate the 60
anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Iranian security officials closed the centre down.
The centre must be reopened immediately. We must put pressure on the Commission, the High Representative, the Czech Presidency and our own Member States to take this case up and see the centre reopened.
It is hard for us sitting here in this Chamber to truly comprehend the bravery, the courage and strength required by human rights activists like Shirin Ebadi to function in Iran and stand up to the dictatorship. However, the work of human rights lawyers and activists is needed to shine a light on what is happening in Iran, to give hope to those like the Alaei brothers. Arash and Kamiar Alaei are both doctors helping those with HIV and AIDS who have been charged with cooperating with an enemy, when all they have been doing is trying to help the sick.
I hope that we will see the re-opening of the human rights centre and that this Parliament will do all it can to help Shirin Ebadi. After all, as fellow human beings, her struggle is also our struggle."@en1
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