Joint NGO statement to the European Parliament and EU Member States

In the lead up to International Women’s Day, Amnesty International and several civil society organisations want to remind the EU institutions that corporate accountability is a women’s rights issue, and EU legislation, including the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), needs to reflect this.

As the Swedish government prepares to assume the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), Amnesty International calls on you to ensure that human rights are at the forefront of the Swedish presidency’s mandate. This presidency comes at a time of increased challenges in Europe, including the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and its implications for the international human rights system, backsliding on the rule of law, the growing anti-gender movement and a recrudescence of the disembarkation crisis, putting further in danger the lives of people crossing the Mediterranean.

Responding to the passing of a new EU law which requires companies selling batteries for electric cars and other electronic devices in the EU to comply with new rules designed to prevent human rights abuses and environmental harm in their supply chains, Mark Dummett, Head of Business and Human Rights at Amnesty International, said:

The exclusion of banks and financial institutions, as well as waivers for companies that sell high-risk security equipment and surveillance technologies, undermine a proposed new European Union law governing human rights and businesses, Amnesty International said.

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 company’s small hydropower plants on the Kasindolska river.

No more exploitation, no more environmental destruction, no more unjust business practices by European companies. Those are the demands of the Justice is Everybody’s Business campaign, launched today in Brussels by nearly 100 civil society and trade union organisations. The campaign urges the EU to issue a strong due diligence law that effectively requests businesses to prevent human rights and environmental harm and provides effective tools to hold businesses accountable for failures and harm.

The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) has crossed the finish line, with the European Parliament adopting the proposal in a vote on 5 July 2022. This landmark digital regulation has gone through the legislative process in record speed and is expected to be of similarly transformative force as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The following analysis provides an overview of what the legislation means for our rights in the digital age, and for holding powerful tech companies to account.

European Union institutions are failing to end the rampant human rights violations committed with spyware, Amnesty International said today, after the organization independently confirmed new attacks using Pegasus spyware against prominent Catalans.

The European Union’s proposed batteries regulation should require importers and manufacturers to source the bauxite, copper, and iron used in batteries responsibly, a coalition of 13 organizations said today. The coalition includes Amnesty International, Earthworks, Finnwatch, Germanwatch, Human Rights Watch, Inclusive Development International, INKOTA, PowerShift, RAID, SOMO, and Transport & Environment, as well as human rights and environmental activists from producer countries.

The political agreement on the Digital Services Act (DSA) that was reached by co-legislators is a landmark moment in the history of Internet regulation, Amnesty International has said today.  

Amnesty International and partners are calling on European Union member states to ensure the upcoming Digital Services Act (DSA) contains robust human rights protections, in an open letter published today.