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In the July issue of the NPWJ e-newsletter, the main highlights are dedicated to the EU stance in respect of the ongoing campaign of repression and persecution against human rights defenders, leaders of the political opposition and civil society activists, as well as the restriction of fundamental democratic rights in Bahrain, as well as to the new joint report issued by NPWJ, UNPO, IILHR and MRG on the situation of minorities in Iraq.

As called for by the urgency resolution adopted in July by the European Parliament, Bahraini authorities should ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Nabeel Rajab and other imprisoned human rights defenders, whose only “crime” is to advocate openly and peacefully for meaningful democratic reforms and the respect of human rights in Bahraincondemning in the strongest terms . The same apply to the head of the Al-Wefaq opposition group Sheikh Ali Salman, whose prison sentence was shockingly increased from 4 to 9 years in May. The European Union and its member states should follow the European Parliament in raising unequivocally the same concerns and in urging the Bahraini regime to comply with its obligations under international human rights laws, on the occasion of the 25th European Union-Gulf Cooperation Council (EU-GCC) Ministerial meeting set to take place in Brussels on 18 July 2016.

No Way Home: Iraq’s Minorities on the Verge of Disappearance, which is based on extensive interviews and field research, documents how tens of thousands of persons belonging to Iraq’s ethnic and religious minorities have been murdered, maimed or abducted, including unknown numbers of women and girls forced into marriage or sexual enslavement, after the fall of Mosul in June 2014. This new joint report issued by NPWJ, UNPO, IILHR and MRG is a follow up to a previous one entitled “Between the Millstones: The State of Iraq’s Minorities since the Fall of Mosul”, published in February 2015. On Thursday 14 July 2016, its main outcomes and recommendations were presented at a meeting of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with the Republic of Iraq, chaired by Ana Gomes MEP (S&D).

Special attention is also dedicated to the first exhibition in Europe of the painting called “Angels of Syria”. The piece of art is a collaborative work between Hossam al-Saadi, Hussam Alloum, Abduljaleel al-Shaqaqi and Ahmed al-Dulli who wanted to protest against the killing of Children in Syria. The painting shows a face of a Syrian child and contains the names of the 12490 children that had been killed during the war in Syria at the time it was completed (in 2014). The names were documented by the Violations Documenting Center (VDC), the NGO founded by Razan Zaitouneh, who was honoured by the European Parliament Sakharov Prize 2011.

For more information, contact Nicola Giovannini, Public Affairs Coordinator on ngiovannini@npwj.org, phone:  +32 2 548 39 15.