In October 2023, Amnesty International submitted its contribution to a strategic inquiry launched by the European Ombudsman (Own Initiative Inquiry OI/3/2023/MHZ), focused on the role of Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, in the context of search and rescue (SAR) operations. The inquiry centred, in particular, on the involvement of Frontex in the shipwreck off the coast of Pylos in June 2023.

Responding to the mounting restrictions being placed by several authorities in Europe on protests defending Palestinian human rights, Esther Major, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Research in Europe, said:

Amnesty International, EuroMed Rights and Human Rights Watch shared a letter with President of the European Council Charles Michel and EU Heads of States and Governments ahead of the 26-27 October meeting of the European Council.

For the attention of Brando Benifei MEP and Dragoş Tudorache MEP,

Amnesty International shared a letter with High Representative Josep Borrell and EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs ahead of the 23 October Foreign Affairs Council meeting in relation to the ongoing fighting in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, in particular the humanitarian and human rights crisis unfolding in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, especially in Gaza.

Armita Garawand, a 16-year-old schoolgirl, remains in a coma after falling unconscious on 1 October 2023 at a Tehran metro amid reports that a confrontation with somebody enforcing Iran’s degrading and discriminatory compulsory veiling laws led to her hospitalisation. Her hospitalisation comes against a backdrop of Iranian authorities intensified oppression against women and girls in recent months.

Brussels, 18 October 2023

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.

Ahead of a hearing at the General Court of the European Union, in which Frontex, the EU border agency, will be questioned over its lack of transparency in relation to its involvement in maritime interceptions and subsequent human rights abuses against refugees and migrants in Libya, Matteo de Bellis, Amnesty International’s Refugee Rights Researcher, said:

On 10 October, Amnesty International issued a letter to High Representative Josep Borrell and EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs ahead of their emergency meeting in relation to the horrific events unfolding in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

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: