European Parliament calls for immediate reassessment of EU-Pakistan trade regime
The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) welcomes the European Parliament’s 29 April 2021 resolution on the blasphemy laws in Pakistan. The resolution is significant not only for its forceful condemnation of the terrible state of religious freedom in Pakistan, but also for its recognition that the European Union (EU) the EU’s trading relationship with Pakistan is failing to uphold human rights, and its demand that the European Commission immediately reconsider it.
On 29 April 2021, the European Parliament passed a resolution decrying the deterioration of what was already a terrible record of religious persecution in Pakistan. The resolution was overwhelmingly passed, 662 to 3, with 26 not voting.
European Parliament calls for immediate reassessment of EU-Pakistan trade regime
The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) welcomes the European Parliament’s 29 April 2021 resolution on the blasphemy laws in Pakistan. The resolution is significant not only for its forceful condemnation of the terrible state of religious freedom in Pakistan, but also for its recognition that the European Union (EU) the EU’s trading relationship with Pakistan is failing to uphold human rights, and its demand that the European Commission immediately reconsider it.
On 29 April 2021, the European Parliament passed a resolution decrying the deterioration of what was already a terrible record of religious persecution in Pakistan. The resolution was overwhelmingly passed, 662 to 3, with 26 not voting.
UNPO Position on EU-Pakistan Relations
The UNPO welcomes the potential intiative of the European Parliament to enact an Urgency Resolution on Pakistan. It requests that the European Parliament looks not only at the government of Pakistan s actions, but also at the whether the EU, itself, is tacitly complicit in human rights violations in Pakistan as a result of the continuation of its current trade and aid relationship with the country.
The UNPO understands that the European Parliament is particularly concerned about the use of the blasphemy law to target religious minorities and to order and enact death sentences. On March 10, the Lahore High Court increased the sentence of Sajjad Masih from life imprisonment to death, for sending supposedly blasphemous text messages. The appeal of Shagufta Kausar and Shafqat Emmanuel, who have been imposed the death penalty for similar text messages, has been continually delayed, to-date for over six years.
UNPO: UNPO Position on EU-Pakistan Relations unpo.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from unpo.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.