As Spain assumes the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), Amnesty International calls on the Spanish government to ensure that human rights are at the forefront of the mandate. The Spanish presidency comes at a time of increased challenges in Europe: ongoing Russia’s war against Ukraine, mounting geopolitical tensions, new conflicts and instability across the world, worsening impacts of the climate crisis, increasing challenges to the international human rights system and those seeking to defend human rights. We continue to observe the backsliding on the rule of law and the growing anti-gender movement within the EU, while there is a significant uptake in sea crossings in the Mediterranean, with many cases of shipwrecks and drownings due to a failure to prioritise prompt rescue, new policies to obstruct operations by NGO rescue vessels, and continued reliance on interceptions by third countries to prevent arrivals to the EU.
