PRESS STATEMENTS: This section contains written statements and press releases issued by Emma, both as an MEP and also as a charity activist.

Václav Havel, Desmond Tutu, MEPs call for human rights at Beijing Olympics

Olympic Watch
Prague, 31 July 2008
A group of international intellectual, spiritual and political leaders has published a public appeal today, calling on the International Olympic Committee to allow full access to information at Beijing Olympics and on Olympic athletes to express themselves in support of people whose rights are being violated by the Chinese government. The […]

Prince of Wales Helps to Raise over £100,000 for Iraq’s Refugees

25th April 2008
His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales was joined yesterday by Dr Al Dabbagh, the Special Representative of Iraqi Prime Minisiter Nouri Maliki, Sheikh al Attiya the Deputy Speaker of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, Dr Khalifey Lebanese Minister of Health and Dr Kim Howells MP (Minister of State, FCO) for a fundraising […]

Pakistan Elections Falls Short of International Standards According to EU Election Observation Mission

18 APRIL 2008
Member of the European Parliament, Baroness Emma Nicholson (MEP) and delegate on the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) to Pakistan today gave her backing to the Mission’s Final report on the February 2008 National and Provincial elections which found that while improvements had been made from the 2002 poll in Pakistan […]

Discrimination against Muslim women and its causes

17 April 2008
European Parliament (press release), EU
Religion is not the source of human rights abuses, and it is patriarchal culture, not the Koran, that leads to discrimination against Muslim women, concluded a Women’s Rights Committee hearing on 17 April.
“Religion, culture and politics should not be mixed up”, as this risks leading to misunderstandings, said Committee […]

Iraqi Prime Minister calls for further “cooperation and partnership” between Iraq and the E.U

16 APRIL 2008
Nouri al-Maliki, Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq, today (16th April 2008) called for “new steps of cooperation and partnership between Iraq and the E.U” during a wide ranging address at a special joint meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and its Delegation for relations with Iraq chaired by […]

MEP calls for EU Council to take action on Palestinians in Israeli Jails

15 April 2008
Baroness Nicholson MEP today called on the European Union Council to take action on the 11,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails including hundreds of children and women, the majority held in administrative detention and with little right to judicial oversight.
According to the Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human […]

Baroness Nicholson MEP condemns “anomaly” of Kashmir’s forgotten region

10 April 2008
Speaking at the close of a two day seminar at the European Parliament in Brussels, Baroness Nicholson MEP described the Gilgit and Baltistan region of Pakistan as “a political and constitutional anomaly”:
“This region of two million people has been under the direct military rule of Islamabad since 1949. Its people lack a functioning […]

Baroness Nicholson MEP Backs European Parliament Iraq Report

12 March 2008
Baroness Nicholson MEP who chairs the European Parliament’s Permanent ad hoc Delegation for relations with Iraq and was also the first foreign speaker to address the Iraqi Parliament in October 2007 today gave her backing to the European Parliament’s recommendations to the Council on the European Union’s role in Iraq.
Speaking during the debate […]

Baroness Nicholson MEP Welcomes First Joint Parliamentary Iraq Meeting

29 February 2008
Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne MEP yesterday welcomed a high level visit by Iraqi parliamentarians to the European Parliament in Brussels. The visit was the first time a joint meeting has been held between Iraqi parliamentarians and the European Parliament’s newly established Permanent Ad-hoc Delegation for Relations with Iraq, chaired by Baroness Nicholson.
In a […]

Baroness Nicholson MEP calls on Pakistan to Address ‘Profound Democratic Deficits’

22nd February 2008
Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne MEP today spoke out on the Pakistan elections on her return from Lahore as a parliamentary member of the European Union Election Observation Mission (EUEOM), calling on the incoming Government to address the imperatives of the ‘profound democratic deficits with rigour and determination so that Pakistan’s democracy can finally […]