Dear High Representative / Vice-President Borrell,

Open Letter to Authorities in Europe and Globally

One year on from the start of the conflict in Sudan on 15 April 2023, and as the Foreign Affairs Council meets on Sudan on 22 April 2024, Amnesty International and 10 other NGOs call on the European Union (EU) and its member states to take urgent, strategic and concrete steps to respond to the massive cost on civilians of the dramatic human rights and humanitarian crisis in the country and prevent further violations.

One year on from the start of the conflict in Sudan on 15 April 2023, and ahead of the 22 April Foreign Affairs Council, Amnesty International wrote to High Representative Borrell and to EU Foreign Ministers to urge them to ensure the European Union (EU) and its member states step up action on continuing human rights violations, including war crimes, in the conflict in Sudan.

Reacting to the European Council’s decision to call for a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza, Amnesty International’s Head of the European Institutions Office, Eve Geddie said: 

Ahead of the European Union’s (EU) leaders meeting with the Egyptian president in Cairo (17 March 2024), Amnesty International called for all leaders to ensure that respect for human rights is at the centre of all ties between the EU and Egypt.

The European Commission is currently deliberating whether it will release its planned funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), without which UNRWA could run out of funding leading to closing its operation. In a letter addressed to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard urges the European Commission to ensure these funds are allocated to UNRWA without delay, to avoid exacerbating the suffering of over two million Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, who are currently facing a serious risk of genocide.

Ahead of the Foreign Affairs Council on 19 February, Amnesty International shared a letter with High Representative Josep Borrell and EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs, in relation to the worrying signs of genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip and the impending Israeli ground invasion of Rafah.

Following certain governments’ alarming decisions to suspend funding to the United Nations Work and Relief Agency (UNRWA), Amnesty International wrote to leaders of EU member states, to High Representative Borrell and to European Commissioner for Crisis Management Lenarčič, urging them to ensure that the EU and your governments do not suspend funding to UNRWA and continue publicly supporting UNRWA and its essential mission in view of the risk of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Ahead of the Foreign Affairs Council on 22 January, Amnesty International wrote to High Representative / Vice President Josep Borrell Fontelles and EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs, to share our analysis and recommendations for their discussion on the situation in the Middle East.

Announcements by a number of European countries and the European Commission to restrict funding to Palestinian human rights organizations would further damage the European Union’s credibility as a self-proclaimed champion of human rights. Amnesty International and 95 other organizations have published a letter to the EU and member states expressing concern about the impact of such discriminatory measures on human rights.

Ahead of the European Union Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on Monday, which will discuss the current escalation of the conflict in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Amnesty International is urging the ministers attending to call for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to the conflict. The expanding humanitarian and human rights catastrophe unfolding in Gaza urgently needs to end.