Considering human rights and democracy constitute an essential element of the EU-Tunisia Association Agreement, it is essential that the EU institutions defend clear and measurable benchmarks in order to bring all parties practices into compliance with international standards and clearly denounce violations of these standards.
We call on the European Parliament to debate the situation in Tunisia and adopt a resolution during next week’s plenary session in Strasbourg. The Parliament has not adopted a resolution Tunisia since 1996, despite the deteriorating human rights situation. If the European Parliament is serious about its commitment to the promotion of human rights and democracy, it should act now.
The conclusions by the Special Rapporteur on the Freedom of Expression and Opinion of the UN Commission on Human Rights of March 2000 support the view that human rights practices in Tunisia have deteriorated markedly.
We are alarmed by the initial decision of the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament not to deal with Tunisia next week. The big groups have bowed to pressure from the Tunisian government once again.
If the European Parliament decides to remain silent next week it will not only loose an important opportunity to show its solidarity with human rights defenders and independent human rights organizations, it will also undermine its own credibility with regard to its supposedly important role as defender of human rights and democracy in the world.
We also called on the European Parliament to support our call on the EU Council of Ministers to convene an extraordinary session of the EU-Tunisia Association Council, which can be done by the EU since it is presently its chair. This extraordinary meeting should essentially deal with human rights and democracy.
For all these reasons, we call on you to support the ‘contestation’ to include Tunisia in the list of urgency resolutions, which will be voted on Monday May 15.