For me helping is normal. I didn’t know that helping was forbidden. Helping is my duty, as a human being.

Reacting to today’s European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment in Ismayilova v. Azerbaijan, in favour of journalist Khadia Ismayilova, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Denis Krivosheev, said:

This briefing is submitted in accordance with Rule 9(2) of the Rules of the Committee of Ministers for the supervision of the execution of judgments, in advance of the 1369th (Human Rights) meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies on the execution of judgments.

The decision to detain Osman Kavala on new charges merely hours after a court ordered his release must be immediately reversed and he must immediately set free, said Amnesty International.

Following the acquittal of Osman Kavala and eight other defendants in the so-called ‘Gezi trial’, Amnesty International’s Turkey Campaigner, Milena Buyum said:

On Saturday judges and lawyers from at least 14 countries will march in Warsaw in defence of human rights and the rule of law in Poland, as the Polish Senate considers a law which would further erode judicial independence.  Ahead of the protest, Draginja Nadaždin, Director of Amnesty International Poland, said:

The European Court of Human Rights ruled on December 10, 2019 that Osman Kavala, a civic leader, has been arbitrarily detained in Turkey since November 2017. The court said that his detention has been carried out and prolonged in bad faith for unlawful purposes, in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, and that he should be immediately released.

The European Union (EU) and its member states are falling short on their commitment to support and protect human rights defenders (HRDs) who are facing mounting deadly threats and attacks, a new Amnesty International report out today shows.  

Around the world, people are speaking up and working to defend human rights, frequently at risk to their safety, freedom or life. They are harassed and intimidated, unjustly prosecuted and imprisoned. Some are tortured, killed or forcibly disappeared.

The EU’s human rights policy in Russia has long had to contend with divergent EU member state positions and political considerations related to Russia’s perceived strategic and economic importance to Europe. The suspension of the political framework for EU-Russia dialogue following the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the increasingly tense EU-Russia relations characterized by occasional diplomatic and security flare ups, have presented a further obstacle to the EU’s HRD policy.

• Amnesty International spokespeople available for interview • Press conference opposite administrative court of Paris at 11.00 25 April

Reacting to the news that an Ankara administrative appeals court has today lifted the blanket ban on all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex events in place in the capital since November 2017, Fotis Filippou, Campaigns Director for Europe at Amnesty International said: