Civil Society Organizations are writing ahead of the upcoming EU-Egypt Association Council meeting to urge HR/VP Borrell and EU member states’ Foreign Ministers to use this opportunity to raise concerns over serious human rights violations and crimes under international law perpetrated by Egyptian authorities, and to set concrete and measurable human rights benchmarks as criteria for progress in the EU-Egypt bilateral relations.

Ahead of the European Union (EU)-African Union (AU) summit on 17-18 February 2022, Amnesty International calls on African and European leaders to deliver on their human rights commitments in policy and practice, as they confront multiple challenges together. At the EU-AU Foreign Affairs Ministerial Meeting in October 2021, both sides re-affirmed their commitment to political dialogue aimed at enhancing human rights and informing the overall AU-EU cooperation.

Ahead of the first EU-Saudi Arabia meeting on human rights on 27 September, Amnesty International is calling on EU leaders to hold Saudi Arabia’s government to account for its campaign to silence dissent, which has accelerated in recent months.

This paper outlines Amnesty International’s key recommendations to the EU and EU member states participating in the Brussels V Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region.

Your Excellencies,

Dear High Representative,

Earlier this week, more than 278 lawmakers from across Europe and the United States sent public letters to Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi with a strong message denouncing the situation of prisoners of conscience in the country. In a show of mounting concern, 84 members of the European Parliament, 138 members of national parliaments across Europe, and 56 members of both chambers of the US Congress urged President al-Sisi to halt the unjust imprisonment of human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers and political activists in Egypt, who have been imprisoned solely for exercising their human rights.

This paper outlines Amnesty International’s key recommendations to the EU and EU member states participating in the Brussels IV Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region.

President MichelEuropean CouncilHigh Representative BorrellEuropean External Action ServiceCommissionner VárhelyiEuropean Commission

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.

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.