Written declaration No. 683 | Doc. 14934 | 28 June 2019

The human rights of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

Signatories: Ms Stella CREASY, United Kingdom, SOC ; Ms Thorhildur Sunna ÆVARSDÓTTIR, Iceland, SOC ; Ms Hannah BARDELL, United Kingdom, NR ; Ms Petra BAYR, Austria, SOC ; Mr Boriss CILEVIČS, Latvia, SOC ; Mr Vernon COAKER, United Kingdom, SOC ; Sir Jeffrey DONALDSON, United Kingdom, EC ; Mr Kimmo KILJUNEN, Finland, SOC ; Mr Ian LIDDELL-GRAINGER, United Kingdom, EC ; Mr Maciej MASŁOWSKI, Poland, EC ; Mr Conor McGINN, United Kingdom, SOC ; Ms Ana Catarina MENDES, Portugal, SOC ; Mr Pieter OMTZIGT, Netherlands, EPP/CD ; Mr Joseph O'REILLY, Ireland, EPP/CD ; Lord Simon RUSSELL, United Kingdom, EC ; Ms Selin SAYEK BÖKE, Turkey, SOC ; Mr Frank SCHWABE, Germany, SOC ; Mr Tommy SHEPPARD, United Kingdom, NR ; Mr Martin VICKERS, United Kingdom, EC ; Mr Martin WHITFIELD, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Phil WILSON, United Kingdom, SOC

This written declaration commits only those who have signed it.

We, the undersigned, declare the following:

We strongly condemn the Iranian Government for continuing to hold Ms Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, dual British-Iranian national, in arbitrary detention, and call for her immediate release. We express dismay over Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s detention for over three years and stand with her and her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, in their hunger strike in protest at her arbitrary detention.

We call on the Committee of Ministers to urge the United Kingdom Government, the defender of Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s human rights, to keep identifying and intervening in cases where British nationals face human rights violations in Iran and we urge it to take the following actions:

• formally request a private consular meeting with Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, based on Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, and a medical examination by an independent doctor to ensure her welfare;
• state publicly that all British or dual national cases of imprisonment, threats/actual torture or ill-treatment abroad will not be tolerated and publicly condemned;
• take diplomatic action and other means of peaceful settlement to secure Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her daughter Gabriella’s safe return to the United Kingdom;
• propose to Iranian Government the immediate commencement of formal negotiations to resolve the dispute over Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and, if not possible, call a United Nations Security Council meeting on the dispute.