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EU foreign policy
EU HR
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Young environmental activists face baseless defamation charges from Belgian-owned hydropower company in Bosnia
Ahead of a court hearing on Monday in Istočno Sarajevo, Amnesty International urges BUK, a hydropower company owned by Belgian-based Green Invest to drop their defamation suits against two local activists who publicly expressed concerns about the potential environmental impact of the...
Ensure fundamental rights protections in the Council position on the AI Act
Joint Civil Society letter bringing to the attention of EU member states a number of serious shortcomings in the Council position on the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) (COM/2021/206) currently under negotiation by the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union. This communication...
Latvia: Refugees and migrants arbitrarily detained, tortured and forced to ‘voluntarily’ return to their countries
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...
Council of Europe resolution is a call for action against Islamophobia in Europe
Amid rising Islamophobia in Europe, amplified by politicians using anti-Muslim rhetoric, parliamentarians from 46 countries will vote in a plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on a resolution that accuses authorities in several European states of normalizing...
EU-Israel Summit: Apartheid is no basis for cooperation
On 3 October, top EU officials will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid in the first high-level meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council in over ten years. Ahead of the meeting, Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s EU office, said: “Israel is committing the crime of apartheid...
NGOs Joint Statement: Agreeing on the Instrumentalisation Regulation will be the Final Blow to a COMMON European Asylum System (CEAS) in Europe
In December 2021, the European Commission presented a proposal for a Regulation addressing situations of instrumentalisation in the field of migration and asylum. The proposal introduces a mechanism which allows Member States to derogate from their responsibilities under EU asylum law in...
EU-Israel Association Council – EU should not sacrifice human rights in the name of reviving relations
After being put on hold for the past 10 years, the EU-Israel Association Council is set to take place against the backdrop of systematic human rights violations and the Israeli authorities’ persistent and increasingly brazen disregard for EU human rights concerns. Carrying on with business as usual...
Regional overview of islamophobia in Europe: Submission to the CoE PACE Committee on Equality and Non-discrimination
Muslim communities in Europe are estimated to account for approximately 25.8 million people or roughly 4.9% of the region’s total population. Amnesty International has long been concerned about racial and religious discrimination and its specific impact on Muslim people’s human rights across...
One year since Greece opened new “prison-like” refugee camps, NGOs call for a more humane approach
Exactly one year ago, the first EU-funded Closed Controlled Access Centre (CCAC) for asylum seekers in Greece was inaugurated on the island of Samos. Concerns were raised from the outset, given that residents were immediately subjected to disproportionate restrictions on their movement and to...