A court in Moscow has sentenced opposition activist and Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny to two years and eight months in a penal colony, amid a brutal crackdown on peaceful protests which saw at least 5,021 people detained on 31 January alone. The Simonovsky District Court granted a motion put forward by the Federal Penitentiary Service to replace Aleksei Navalny’s suspended sentence with jail time, and he will be held at a penal colony.

Dear High Representative,

To the attention of:

People’s rights are being violated by governments in Europe and Central Asia, who are cracking down on protests and seeking to erode the independence of the judiciary to avoid accountability, Amnesty International said today as it published its annual review of human rights in the region.

The decision to detain Osman Kavala on new charges merely hours after a court ordered his release must be immediately reversed and he must immediately set free, said Amnesty International.

From 2014 onward, Burundian HRDs, journalists and civil society came under ever-greater pressure in a fast-onset crisis that culminated in an almost total absence of HRDs and civil society space at the time of writing in April 2019. Accelerating harassment and arbitrary detention of HRDs and journalists were the canary in the coal mine for this human rights crisis. At the start of the crisis, the EU was well placed as a donor to Burundi and partner of the government. In response, it initiated intense political dialogue, launched consultations under article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement in October 2015, and finally suspended all aid conducted through the government in March 2016.

Honduras is one of the most dangerous and difficult places for HRDs worldwide, in particular for those working on land and environmental issues. The EU faces many challenges to respond meaningfully here, including:

The European Union (EU) and its member states are falling short on their commitment to support and protect human rights defenders (HRDs) who are facing mounting deadly threats and attacks, a new Amnesty International report out today shows.  

Around the world, people are speaking up and working to defend human rights, frequently at risk to their safety, freedom or life. They are harassed and intimidated, unjustly prosecuted and imprisoned. Some are tortured, killed or forcibly disappeared.

The EU’s human rights policy in Russia has long had to contend with divergent EU member state positions and political considerations related to Russia’s perceived strategic and economic importance to Europe. The suspension of the political framework for EU-Russia dialogue following the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the increasingly tense EU-Russia relations characterized by occasional diplomatic and security flare ups, have presented a further obstacle to the EU’s HRD policy.

On 17 July 2019,also the World Day for International Justice, the Burundian Court of Appeal of Ntahangwa confirmed the sentence of human rights defender Germain Rukuki. The decision was issued in a public hearing without Germain and his defence being notified. On 22 July, six days after the decision was issued, they were finally informed.

The extraction, transport, and trade of minerals have been linked to conflict, corruption, and human rights abuses for decades. The minerals trade has financed armed groups, bankrolled oppressive security forces, facilitated money laundering and corruption, and allowed companies to benefit from serious human rights abuses, like child labour, land-grabbing, and forced evictions. As the world faces climate change, increasing populations and diminishing resources, global supply chains are under increased scrutiny. Whether examining their carbon footprint or links to corruption or other issues, it is clear that many of our supply chains are broken and systemic changes are needed to reform them. This is a global problem that affects us all, and more so communities in producing and trading nations like Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Ghana, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.