On 1 August 2024, the long-awaited Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act enters into force, meaning that after years of negotiations, the AI Act is now an official EU law.

Ahead of the planned opening of two detention centres in Albania in August, intended to detain people rescued or intercepted at sea by Italian ships, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office Eve Geddie said:

Greece must urgently repeal the legal rules that are causing people seeking asylum in the EU-funded “Closed Controlled Access Centre” on the island of Samos to be systematically and unlawfully deprived of their liberty, said Amnesty International in a report issued today. The organization also called on the EU to hold Greece accountable for human rights violations in the centre and ensure that model is not a blueprint for the recently adopted Migration and Asylum Pact.   

Ahead of the second reading of the new proposed firearm regulations that would decriminalize the use of firearms by soldiers, border guards and police officers in a wide range of circumstances in Poland on 11 July, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Europe, Dinushika Dissanayake said:

Joint Statement: The future EU must uphold the right to asylum in Europe

Ahead of the first plenary of the newly elected European Parliament, over 90 human rights and humanitarian organizations are calling on the new European Union to take a firm stance to maintain the right to asylum and the rule of law.

This submission, prepared for the first thematic evaluation round of the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO), provides an overview of Amnesty International’s main concerns about the Dutch government’s compliance with its obligations under the Istanbul Convention. Those concerns include the protection of women against psychological violence and the rights of refugees and migrants. This submission is based on topics that Amnesty International has been researching and monitoring. It is not exhaustive and does not cover all topics in the questionnaire for GREVIO’s first thematic evaluation round.

On Thursday 27 June, with the support of Amnesty International, a group of 24 people filed a class action requesting compensation for their prolonged arbitrary detention in Lithuania in 2021/22, following the declaration of an ‘emergency’ prescribing the automatic detention of people irregularly crossing the border with Belarus. The case was presented to the Regional Administrative Court, two years after Amnesty International denounced the arbitrary detention of thousands of people in Lithuania.

Ahead of the EU-Egypt Investment Conference in Cairo (29-30 June) where the EU is expected to sign off on €1 billion in financial assistance to Egypt, Amnesty International is urging leaders to abide by their own rules and insist on reforms on human rights, democracy and rule of law in Egypt.

Dear Minister,

Regarding the Finnish Government’s proposal for an emergency law on the so-called “instrumentalization” of migration, defined in the text as actions by “states or other actors” to facilitate irregular migration movements into another country in an attempt to destabilize it, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office, Eve Geddie said:

Donor governments meeting in Brussels, especially European Union (EU) member states, must ensure that any funds pledged to support Syrian refugees in Lebanon do not contribute to human rights abuses, including forcible deportations to Syria, said Amnesty International today, as the eighth EU Ministerial Brussels Conference on “Supporting the future of Syria and the region” commences today.