AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT

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NGO partners and activists associated with the End FGM campaign speak out at the European parliament, 28 February 2013. Amnesty International/ Sven Dauphin

20/11/2013 – In December 2013, the Czech Republic will be reviewed by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe with regard to its progress towards the execution of the European Court of Human Rights judgment in the case of D.H. and Others. In 2007, the European Court held the placement of Romani pupils into special schools for pupils with mild mental disabilities amounted to discrimination.  Amnesty International is concerned that six years after the judgment, very little progress has been achieved towards ensuring equal access to education for Roma in Czech Republic. In this submission, Amnesty International demonstrates that to date, the government has failed to adopt measures  explicitly mandating the desegregation of Czech schools. It has also failed to put in place sufficient safeguards against discrimination in access to education. In 2013, instead of urgently adopting the necessary systemic changes, the government appears to have backtracked from its previous commitme

20/11/2013 – The EU needs an overarching human rights strategy that takes the whole of article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union as its starting point – that is to say the founding ‘values’ of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Without this, the EU’s response to human rights challenges will remain at best defensive and reactive, rather than protective and proactive.

Amnesty International has documented Ukraine’s actions and challenges remaining to erradicate police torture. © APGraphicsBank

19/11/2013 – Amnesty International and Social Platform welcome the Council’s engagement on combating hate crime and the leading role played by the Irish and Lithuanian Presidencies in prioritising this issue. In view of the meeting of the FREMP working party on 21 November, our organisations would like to submit the following recommendations for consideration when discussing the draft Council conclusions on combating hate crime.

19/11/2013 – In the run up to the Vilnius Summit the EU has focused its attention on the problem of selective justice. The case of Yuliya Tymoshenko highlights the lack of fair trials and independence of the judiciary in Ukraine, but the political significance of her case should not be allowed to overshadow the systemic problems that deprive thousands of Ukrainians of their rights everyday.

By Siobhán Murphy

Journalists who dare to criticize the authorities in Sri Lanka have been arrested, tortured or even killed. © Ishara S.KODIKARA/AFP/Getty Images