06/11/2014 – The AIRE Centre (Advice on Individual Rights in Europe), ECRE (European Council on Refugees and Exiles) and Amnesty International welcome the European Court of Human Rights’ judgment in the case of Tarakhel v Switzerland, in which the organizations had intervened jointly with the assistance of lawyers from across Europe in February 2014.
03/11/2014 – While Amnesty International welcomes the continued attention given to hate crime by EU member states, we are concerned that relevant discussions and conferences have not been followed-up with any commitments to take action at EU level. We believe that the working party should serve to promote much needed new steps in EU policy-making on hate crime.
Operation Triton is a clear testimony to EU member states’ continuing preoccupation with protecting borders over people
Sending people straight back to Morocco without any procedural safeguards is a clear breach of European and international human rights law.
Amnesty International
30/10/2014 – Amnesty International welcomed the decision today from the Court of Appeal in London in the case of Abdul-Hakim Belhaj and Fatima Boudchar v Straw and Ors in which the Court permitted the Belhaj lawsuit to proceed. Amnesty International had intervened in the case, jointly with the International Commission of Jurists, JUSTICE, and REDRESS.
Joint Amnesty International AIRE Centre Public Statement
23/10/2014 – On 21 October 2014, the European Court of Human Rights released its Chamber judgment in the case of Sharifi and Others v. Italy and Greece (application no. 16643/09). The ruling emphasizes that European Union (EU) member states cannot ignore or circumvent their obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights when implementing EU law or bilateral agreements aimed at returning asylum-seekers to another EU country.
By sending Somalis to volatile areas where their lives are in danger, the Dutch government is also responsible for the human rights abuses they face on their return.
22/10/2014 – Amnesty International stated in May 2013 that forced returns to Somalia amount to a violation of international law.1 In October 2014, Amnesty International is gravely concerned about continued attempts by the Dutch government to effect such forced returns. Other states such as Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom (UK) have also attempted forced returns. Of particular concern is the Dutch government’s position that, under certain circumstances, Somalis can be returned to areas under the control of al-Shabaab,2 an Islamist armed group with links to Al-Qaeda.3 Amnesty International considers it dangerous, irresponsible and in violation of international law for the Minister of Migration in the Netherlands to attempt to return, or compel Somalis to return, to areas under al-Shabaab control in Somalia.
Rather than speculatively accusing each other of abuses, both sides should concentrate on investigating and eliminating execution-style killings by forces they control.
20/10/2014 – Amnesty International has received a growing number of allegations of execution-style and other deliberate killings of civilians in eastern Ukraine since April 2014, in addition to those that have been reported in Crimea since its annexation by Russia and in Odessa on 2 May 2014.1 Initially these reports primarily focused on de facto separatist authorities in the territories in Donetsk and Luhansk Regions under their control. It is only in recent months that allegations of extra-judicial killings by Kyiv-controlled forces have come to Amnesty International’s attention.