Mr. Speaker, Safiya Husseini, a Nigerian woman, is accused of having had sexual relations outside marriage which resulted in a child. If she is found guilty of this offence following the appeal lodged, she will apparently be buried to her waist by the inhabitants of her village and stoned to death.
Yet Nigeria has signed an optional protocol to the Convention to Eliminate all Forms of Discrimination against women and to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflicts.
A month or so ago, a group of 77 European parliamentarians urged the President of Nigeria to oppose this inhumane, barbaric and cruel execution.
I am therefore calling on the Minister of Foreign Affairs to bring pressure to bear on the Nigerian government, in order to end this violation of Safiya's fundamental rights and give her the most wonderful gift of all: life.
Let us stand up and condemn such an atrocity.