European leaders at the  May 8, 2021 summit with their Indian counterparts should prioritize the deteriorating human rights situation in India, including the right to health, eight organizations said today.

Dear High Representative Borrell,

The arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of Russian prominent anti-corruption campaigner and opposition figure Aleksei Navalny, and the concurrent arrests and detention on spurious charges of his colleagues from the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), civil society activists and peaceful protesters during mass public protests held at the beginning of the year and in smaller protests that followed, are the latest in a series of severe, brazen reprisals against all forms of dissent in Russia. The prosecution of Aleksei Navalny and of his colleagues and supporters is politically motivated and their deprivation of liberty is unlawful. They are being held in detention solely for their peaceful political activism and their exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. They must be immediately released.

This paper outlines Amnesty International’s key recommendations to the EU and EU member states participating in the Brussels V Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region.

Dear High Representative,

Your Excellencies,

A court in Moscow has sentenced opposition activist and Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny to two years and eight months in a penal colony, amid a brutal crackdown on peaceful protests which saw at least 5,021 people detained on 31 January alone. The Simonovsky District Court granted a motion put forward by the Federal Penitentiary Service to replace Aleksei Navalny’s suspended sentence with jail time, and he will be held at a penal colony.

Dear High Representative,

Dear High Representative,

Leading human rights organisations have come together to demand the acquittal of 19 human rights defenders for their participation in a Pride parade in 2019, ahead of the verdict expected on Thursday.

The Burundian authorities must overturn human rights defender Germain Rukuki’s conviction and release him immediately and unconditionally, Amnesty International said today as it launched its annual letter-writing human rights campaign, Write for Rights.

Earlier this week, more than 278 lawmakers from across Europe and the United States sent public letters to Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi with a strong message denouncing the situation of prisoners of conscience in the country. In a show of mounting concern, 84 members of the European Parliament, 138 members of national parliaments across Europe, and 56 members of both chambers of the US Congress urged President al-Sisi to halt the unjust imprisonment of human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers and political activists in Egypt, who have been imprisoned solely for exercising their human rights.