The prosecution of human rights defender Osman Kavala and four co-defendants in connection with mass protests a decade ago has been unfair and essentially a political show trial from the beginning, a group of nine non-governmental organisations including Amnesty International, said today ahead of an urgent debate at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, calling for Kavala’s release.
Amnesty International issued a letter to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Commissioner McGuinness, calling for EU action in light of India’s weaponization of laws against civil society.
Responding to the awarding of the 2023 Václav Havel Prize to Turkish prisoner of conscience, Osman Kavala, by the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Europe, Dinushika Dissanayake, said:
Amnesty International and 26 other humanitarian, human rights, and refugee rights organisations welcome the decision of the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the European Union to extend the Temporary Protection Directive for refugees fleeing Ukraine for an additional year, until 4 March 2025.
Six young people from Portugal will present a landmark case before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) tomorrow, 27 September, arguing that countries are breaching their human rights by failing to do enough to protect them from climate change.
Athens, June 21, 2023: Greece must guarantee independent and effective monitoring of violations of the human rights of refugees and migrants to restore the rule of law, following the European Commission request to the Greek authorities for an investigation of a push back of refugees by the Hellenic Coast Guard on Lesvos island, documented by the New York Times. The Greek authorities have entrusted the National Transparency Authority (NTA) with the investigation.
Joint NGO statement by Amnesty International, Danish Refugee Council, HIAS Europe, Human Rights Watch, International Rescue Committee, Médecins sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders, Missing Children Europe, Oxfam, Save the Children, SOS Children’s Villages International.
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.
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.
Ahead of the informal “Gymnich” meeting of EU Foreign Affairs ministers on 12 May, Amnesty International and 7 other NGOs urge the EU and its member states to ensure that their review and recalibration of the EU’s strategy on its relations with China results in concrete, strategic and strengthened actions on human rights.
Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard has sent an open letter calling on the Rapporteurs and members of leading committees on the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) to prohibit the use of certain artificial intelligence (AI) systems which are incompatible with human rights of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in the AI Act.