27/05/2015 – At the forthcoming summit between the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean states (CELAC) on 10-11 June 2015 in Brussels, Amnesty International calls on leaders from both continents to re-affirm their shared commitment to universal human rights and to put them into practice at home and in all future collaborations.

26/05/2015 – On the occasion of the forthcoming International Conference on Central African Republic (CAR) on 26 May 2015 in Brussels, Amnesty International calls on you and all participants to ensure that the European Union (EU) and its member states give full political and material support to human rights and efforts toward justice, through the EU Trust Fund Bêkou and their wider engagement there.

24/05/2015 – Amnesty International is writing to urge you to raise key human rights concerns during the European Union (EU) – Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) ministerial meeting on 24 May. Following President Obama’s meeting with GCC leaders last week, this week’s ministerial meeting offers you a unique opportunity to advocate for an end to repression and human rights violations within each GCC country.

A Congolese artisan mine worker shows a small peice of gold found after water processing, in Chudja, Democratric Republic of the Congo (DRC). The UN reveals that a lot of gold is still financing armed groups in DRC. Credit: EPA

Today we have seen the European Commission take a first step in shifting its Fortress Europe attitude towards the refugee crisis, but it will need to be implemented expansively and with the full backing of all EU member states.

Uzbekistan Stop Torture action, October 2014. © Amnesty International

European leaders must ensure that refugees and migrants fleeing conflict and human rights abuses are never pushed back to Libya.

07/05/2015 – ‘Libya is full of cruelty’: Stories of abduction, sexual violence and abuse from migrants and refugees exposes the full horror and plight of refugees and migrants in Libya, many of whom are driven to risk their lives in treacherous sea crossings in a desperate attempt to reach sanctuary in Europe.

Real solutions could have been agreed today.  No one should be fooled. They haven’t been.

European leaders must move beyond political grandstanding to ensure robust and multi-country search and rescue.

European leaders meeting in Brussels have an opportunity and the responsibility to make right their colossal failures which continue to lead to deaths. The proposal on the table puts spin before lives.