Following months of attacks on the European Convention on Human Rights’ system, Council of Europe member states adopted a political declaration on 15 May that could open the door to a two-tier system where migrants and refugees’ rights would receive less protection. 

Dear Members of the European Parliament,  

Reacting to the vote in the European Parliament on a report calling once again for an EU-wide consent-based definition of rape, Dinushika Dissanayake Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Europe said:

Dear President von der Leyen,

Reacting to the EU’s failure to call for a vote to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement or to agree on any other concrete measures today at the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns said:

In response to Israeli authorities’ violations of international humanitarian law in Palestine and Lebanon, over 90 human rights and humanitarian organizations and trade unions call on the EU and member states to adopt long-overdue measures, including suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement, banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements and suspending all transfers and transit of arms to Israel.

Dear Members of the European Parliament,Dear Cypriot Presidency of the Council of the EU,Dear representatives of the Member States in the Council of the EU,

As humanitarian and human rights organisations that have worked for years in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, we are appalled by the Israeli Knesset’s decision to approve a bill that makes death penalty effectively mandatory in the West Bank and which will de facto apply exclusively to Palestinians.

Responding to the European Parliament’s vote on its position on the European Union (EU) Return Regulation today, Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office, said:

To mark Poland’s official withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention or the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty, Julia Głębocka, Human rights researcher for Amnesty International Poland, reflects on what the return of these indiscriminate weapons means for human rights in Europe.

As we mark four years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and 12 years since its initial military intervention, Amnesty International issued the following letter to High Representative Kallas and EU Foreign Ministers, outlining our key calls to the European Union and its member states.

EU foreign ministers must use their meeting on 23 February with Nikolai Mladenov, Director-General of the Board of Peace and High Representative for Gaza, to demand that the board focuses on Palestinians’ rights, Amnesty International said.