Brussels, 12th June 2023 | CASE legal experts

The European Parliament must use a plenary vote cementing its final position on the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) to ban racist and discriminatory profiling systems that target migrants and other marginalized groups, Amnesty International said today, ahead of the vote on 14 June.

Ahead of the European Council of 29-30 June 2023, Amnesty International and 11 other NGOs urge President of the European Council Charles Michel and EU Heads of State to ensure that human rights remain at the core of a robust and ambitious European Union (EU) approach to relations with the government of China.

Responding to news that European leaders have agreed a negotiating position on the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ that would reduce standards of protection for people at arriving at the European Union’s borders, Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s European Union Office said:

Reacting to a new investigation from Lighthouse Reports that reveals new details about the February shipwreck of Steccato di Cutro in Italy, which resulted in the death of at least 94 people despite EU Border Agency Frontex and Italian authorities being aware they were in danger, Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office, said:

Amnesty International welcomes the European Commission’s proposal for a Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence (COM (2022) 105 final, 8 March 2022) (hereinafter “draft Directive”). As this draft Directive is negotiated, we urge the Parliament, Council, and the Commission to consider our recommendations that would strengthen the protection of the rights of survivors of gender-based violence and domestic violence.

Reacting to a vote in the European Parliament today in favour of a draft bill governing the responsibilities of corporations towards human rights and the environment, known as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, Hannah Storey, Amnesty International Policy Advisor on Business and Human Rights, said:

As the next EU General Affairs Council prepares to hold a hearing on 30 May 2023 on the situation in Poland and Hungary under the Article 7.1 TEU procedure, the undersigned civil society organisations would like to draw the attention to recent developments regarding the rule of law and human rights in both countries, with a particular focus on Poland, whose situation has not been examined in a long time.

Ahead of the forthcoming EU-Cuba Joint Council on 26 May, Amnesty International and 7 NGOs urged High Representative Borrell to ensure that human rights remain at the very centre of the EU’s relations with Cuba, at a crucial moment for the country’s human rights defenders.

Today, for only the fourth time since its foundation in 1949, the heads of state of the Council of Europe (CoE) will come together in Reykjavik, Iceland. And with Europe in the middle of a human rights crisis, and large-scale war raging on the Continent, this meeting of Europe’s top human rights organization is vital.

This blog is authored by Sébastien Duyck, Senior Attorney; Campaign Manager Human Rights & Climate, Center for International Environmental Law, Amy Jacobsen, Legal Counsel Communications, Greenpeace International, Katharina Rall, Senior Researcher in the Environment and Human Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, and Chiara Liguori,  Climate Justice Policy Adviser and Researcher, Amnesty International.