The open letter before the Eastern Partnership summit

The Eastern Partnership summit was held last week. It has been the first meeting of heads of states and governments since the launch of the initiative in 2009. The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights delivered an open letter regarding the summit.

In this letter the HFHR places particular emphasis on the continuous infringements of human rights in Belarus. The Foundations recalls the case of Ales Belyatsky arrested in Minsk early August.

The letter names other incidents of human rights violation in the Eastern Partnership states. The Foundation reminds of the political trial against Yulia Tymoshenko, persecution of bloggers in Azerbaijan and the brutal quelling of protests in Georgia.

‘It’s our hope that the key issues discussed at the Eastern Partnership summit taking off in Warsaw will be the respect for the principles of democracy and introduction of appropriate safeguards of human rights protection in the Eastern Partnership countries’, reads the statement.