Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union concerning the conviction of 12 signatories of the Damascus Declaration
- On: 31.10.2008
The European Union deeply deplores the sentencing of 12 prominent members of civil society, in Damascus on 29 October 2008, to two and a half years' imprisonment for their endorsement of the Damascus Declaration for democratic national change.
The EU calls for the release of those non violent activists and again urges Syria to honour its international commitments, in particular under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Syria signed and ratified in 1969.
The Candidate Countries Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia align themselves with this declaration.
* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
- Updated: 06.11.2008
