Brussels, 18 October 2023

The prosecution of human rights defender Osman Kavala and four co-defendants in connection with mass protests a decade ago has been unfair and essentially a political show trial from the beginning, a group of nine non-governmental organisations including Amnesty International, said today ahead of an urgent debate at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, calling for Kavala’s release.

Amnesty International issued a letter to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Commissioner McGuinness, calling for EU action in light of India’s weaponization of laws against civil society.

Ahead of a hearing at the General Court of the European Union, in which Frontex, the EU border agency, will be questioned over its lack of transparency in relation to its involvement in maritime interceptions and subsequent human rights abuses against refugees and migrants in Libya, Matteo de Bellis, Amnesty International’s Refugee Rights Researcher, said:

On 10 October, Amnesty International issued a letter to High Representative Josep Borrell and EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs ahead of their emergency meeting in relation to the horrific events unfolding in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Responding to the awarding of the 2023 Václav Havel Prize to Turkish prisoner of conscience, Osman Kavala, by the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Europe, Dinushika Dissanayake, said: 

A new investigation into the global surveillance crisis by the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) media network, with technical assistance from Amnesty International’s Security Lab, today begins to reveal the shocking truth about how far the industry’s tentacles have spread and how ineffective EU regulation has been in controlling it. 

Responding to the news that EU leaders have agreed a position on how to deal with sudden increases in arrivals at Europe’s borders, as well as cases of so-called ‘instrumentalisation’ of migrants, that would allow EU members states to deviate from the bloc’s usual asylum and reception standards, Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s EU office said:

Amnesty International and 26 other humanitarian, human rights, and refugee rights organisations welcome the decision of the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the European Union to extend the Temporary Protection Directive for refugees fleeing Ukraine for an additional year, until 4 March 2025.

The European Union’s bodies are currently engaging in the final stage of negotiations on the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). As representatives of civil society organizations committed to upholding and monitoring the rule of law and democracy in the European Union, we call on legislators to ensure that the AI Act is fully coherent with rule of law standards, including transparency, accountability, and access to justice. Given the current decline of the rule of law in Europe, and the heightened concern over AI’s misuse, the Union cannot afford to miss this crucial opportunity and should introduce strong safeguards to protect the full respect of human rights and the rule of law.

The European Union (EU) must ban dangerous, AI-powered technologies in the AI Act, Amnesty International said today, as the bloc aims to finalize the world’s first comprehensive AI rulebook this fall.