MEP Arne LIETZ in cooperation with Reporters Without Borders, EuroMed Rights, International Federation for Human Rights and Frontline Defenders welcome Yara Bader in the European Parliament to discuss the repression of human rights and free speech activists in Syria and in particular the case of her husband Mazen Darwish, the imprisoned Director of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Speech.
Syria’s Silenced Voices: The Case of Mazen Darwish
Tuesday, July 14, 2015 from 13:00 – 14:30
European Parliament in Brussels, room ASP 5G305
A light lunch will be served from 12:30
MEP Arne Lietz will open the event. Keynotes will be delivered by:
Yara Bader, Director of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Speech
Joe Weidenholzer, MEP, S&D Coordinator for Human Rights Urgencies
Paul Coppin, Head of Legal Desk Reporters Without Borders
On 11 June 2015, the European Parliament adopted an urgency resolution on the situation of journalists and human rights defenders in Syria and called for the immediate release of Mazen Darwish by the regime of Bashar Al-Assad. The S&D group had initiated this resolution and the meeting with Mazen Darwish’s wife Yara Bader will be an opportunity to follow up on the situation of journalists and human rights activists in Syria and to reiterate the call for the release of Mazen Darwish and other political prisoners in the country.
Mazen Darwish has founded and directed the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression since 2004. Darwish and his collaborators Hani Al-Zaitani and Hussain Ghrer have been imprisoned by the regime of Bashar Al-Assad since 2012. A number of UN resolutions call for the release of Mazen Darwish. He was awarded with the UNESCO Guillermo Cano Press Freedom Prize and the award of the German Lutherstädte "Das unerschrockene Wort".
External attendants without technical badge for the European Parliament please RSVP to arne.lietz@europarl.europa.eu (name, date of birth, nationality, ID type and number).