Lithuania’s intention to criminalize the promotion of homosexuality should be firmly condemned by the EU, Amnesty International warned today. This warning comes as the Lithuanian parliament prepares to debate during its autumn session legislative amendments which would criminalise the “promotion of homosexual relations in public places”. These would violate the country’s obligations to uphold freedom…
On 12 February, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights will hear three cases against Latvia, Lithuania and Poland concerning alleged unlawful pushbacks — summary returns of migrants and refugees at the border — from these EU states to Belarus. This is the first time the European Court will rule on human…
Together with 16 other international human rights organizations, Amnesty International calls on EU leaders attending COP29, the 29th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Baku, to raise directly with the Azerbaijani authorities the cases of those imprisoned on politically motivated grounds and aim to secure their release. In this joint statement, our organizations call…
Reacting to the Polish government’s new migration strategy which cites the threat of Russia and Belarus using migration to ‘destabilize the country’ and proposes temporary suspension of the right to seek asylum, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Europe, Dinushika Dissanayake said: “Suspending the right to seek asylum is flagrantly unlawful and Prime Minister Tusk…
Regarding the Finnish Government’s proposal for an emergency law on the so-called “instrumentalization” of migration, defined in the text as actions by “states or other actors” to facilitate irregular migration movements into another country in an attempt to destabilize it, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office, Eve Geddie said: “This law gravely undermines access…
In October 2023, member states reached an agreement on the contentious Crisis and Force Majeure Regulation, enabling negotiations with the European Parliament to begin on this piece of the migration and asylum reforms package. Despite its name, this proposal will not usher in a better approach to ‘crises’ or increased arrivals at borders. If adopted,…
Responding to the news that EU leaders have agreed a position on how to deal with sudden increases in arrivals at Europe’s borders, as well as cases of so-called ‘instrumentalisation’ of migrants, that would allow EU members states to deviate from the bloc’s usual asylum and reception standards, Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s EU…
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. Once again, dozens of lives have been lost at Europe’s borders due to the EU’s failure to allow people seeking…
The findings by Europe’s top anti-torture body that authorities across Europe have used practices which amount to torture to target refugees and migrants who tried to cross Europe’s borders, strengthen calls for urgent change, said Amnesty International. The report released today by the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) finds widespread…
Amnesty International’s Annual Report for 2022/23 highlights Europe’s double standards on human rights and the failure of the international community to unite around human rights and universal values. The West’s robust response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine contrasts sharply with a deplorable lack of meaningful action on grave violations by some allies including Israel, Saudi Arabia…
Latvian authorities have violently pushed back refugees and migrants at the country’s borders with Belarus, subjecting many to grave human rights violations, including secret detention and even torture, according to new findings published in a report by Amnesty International. Latvia: Return home or never leave the woods reveals the brutal treatment of migrants and refugees…