Amnesty International letter sharing concerns about the treatment of Roma communities in Bulgaria and Slovakia during the COVID-19 pandemic and requesting the Council of Europe and European Commission’s support in taking these issues up with the national authorities.

Dear Mr Schmidt,

• Spokesperson available on the ground

Media advisory

01/10/2018 – Letter to EU HR/VP Federica Mogherini to share reports of human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and to call on the European Union (EU) and its member states to urge the Chinese government to take urgent and effective measures to protect Uighurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim people in the XUAR from being arbitrarily detained in “transformation-through-education” facilities in the name of “de-extremification”.

While the UN Security Council remains bogged down by politics, the Human Rights Council, with the joint leadership of the European Union and Organization of Islamic Cooperation, has stepped up to the challenge with this serious and constructive approach to pave the way for justice

14/09/2018 – Since October 2016, the Myanmar security forces have driven more than 810,000 Rohingya women, men and children into Bangladesh as a result of successive operations in northern Rakhine State marked by crimes under international law. Security forces killed thousands of Rohingya women, men, and children, raped hundreds of Rohingya women and girls and burned several hundred villages to the ground. Human rights violations, including systematic discrimination and segregation, are ongoing against the Rohingya who remain in Rakhine State, and have forced more than 13,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh since the beginning of 2018.

19/02/2018 – The deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation in Myanmar warrants a strong and unified response from the European Union (EU) and its member states at several crucial opportunities in the coming weeks.

The Myanmar authorities are keeping Rohingya women, men and children segregated and cowed in a dehumanising system of apartheid.

The EU has historically led the international response on human rights in Myanmar. Silence now, as a scorched-earth campaign rages, would be deafening – and will not go unnoticed worldwide.

This is a human rights and humanitarian catastrophe. In her first comments on the crisis, instead of promising concrete action to protect the people in Rakhine state, Aung San Suu Kyi appears to be downplaying the horrific reports coming out of the area.

Today’s disappointing rulings by the European Court of Justice give greater leeway to employers to discriminate against women – and men – on the grounds of religious belief