With the 25th European Union-Gulf Cooperation Council (EU-GCC) Ministerial meeting set to take place in Brussels on 18 July 2016, we, the undersigned organisations, call on Ms Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, as well as the ministers of EU member states, to raise a number of pressing human rights issues with the representatives of the GCC countries. In particular, we urge High Representative Mogherini and the EU ministers to call for an end to the Bahraini government’s intensified suppression of civil society and political opposition. We further urge the ministers to raise their concerns following the UN Secretary General’s decision to remove the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen from a UN register of children’s rights violators, after the regime and its coalition partners threatened to cut off crucial funding.
Read full article here