Dear African and European leaders,

We 127 civil society organisations, trade unions and defenders of the public interest write to emphasise our serious alarm at the forthcoming EU Digital Omnibus proposals, part of a wide deregulation agenda.

On 9 November 2025, the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean states (CELAC) will meet for their biennial EU-CELAC summit in Santa Marta, Colombia. Amnesty International urges the EU and CELAC leaders to seize the opportunity to move beyond rhetoric on long-standing partnership and shared values and interests to take concrete actions on human rights in both regions and worldwide, at a crucial time when human rights are under attack globally.

Ahead of the “first ever” EU-Egypt summit between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa and Egypt’s President Abdelfattah Al-Sisi on 22 October, Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office said:    

Regarding the recently adopted Constitutional amendments in Slovakia, we the undersigned 56 civil society organizations, express our profound concern, and urge the EU to take urgent action.

New polling by Ipsos reveals that a large majority of people (75%) across 10 European countries think it is important that the European Union (EU) uphold its own environmental laws.

Pécs Pride organizer faces threat of imprisonment – The annual LGBTQI Pride March in Pécs (Hungary) is scheduled to be held on 4 October 2025. Unlike the Budapest Pride, which was held in June as a municipality event, the Pécs Pride is organized by a private individual as an assembly. It had been banned by the police on 5 September and the Kúria (the Supreme Court of Hungary) upheld the ban. The ban on Pécs Pride is exposing the organizer to the threat of imprisonment, as holding a banned assembly constitutes a criminal offence under the Hungarian Criminal Code. 

As Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza escalates, enabled by US military and political support, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on prominent Palestinian human rights organizations, Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. This represents a grave assault on human rights standards, the global pursuit of justice and respect for international law. 

With this submission, Amnesty International is sharing key principles and issues we believe should be addressed in the upcoming EU Gender Equality Strategy. We appreciate the opportunity to provide input through the meetings that have been organized and the online consultation process. This input builds on our 2024 joint statement with partners which sets out a clear, collective vision for gender equality in the EU, though by no means reflects all the work Amnesty International has done on these issues, nor does it include all forms and manifestations of gender-based discrimination that the strategy should address.

With this short overview, Amnesty International is sharing key principles and issues we believe should be addressed in the upcoming EU Anti-Racism Strategy. We appreciate the opportunity to provide input through the meetings that have been organised and the online consultation process. This input by no means reflects all the work Amnesty International has done on relevant issues, nor does it include all forms and manifestations of racism that the strategy should address.

With this submission, Amnesty International is sharing key principles and issues we believe should be addressed in the EU Civil Society Strategy 2026-2030. We appreciate the opportunity to provide input through the meetings that have been organised and the online consultation process.

On 11 March 2025, the European Commission presented a new proposal for a Return Regulation to replace the current Return Directive. Behind the euphemistic name, the proposal outlines coercive, traumatising, and rights-violating measures premised on an imperative of increasing deportation rates. Instead of focusing on protection, housing, healthcare and education, the Regulation is premised on punitive policies, detention centres, deportation and enforcement.