Following the acquittal of Osman Kavala and eight other defendants in the so-called ‘Gezi trial’, Amnesty International’s Turkey Campaigner, Milena Buyum said:

The European Court of Human Rights ruled on December 10, 2019 that Osman Kavala, a civic leader, has been arbitrarily detained in Turkey since November 2017. The court said that his detention has been carried out and prolonged in bad faith for unlawful purposes, in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, and that he should be immediately released.

From 2014 onward, Burundian HRDs, journalists and civil society came under ever-greater pressure in a fast-onset crisis that culminated in an almost total absence of HRDs and civil society space at the time of writing in April 2019. Accelerating harassment and arbitrary detention of HRDs and journalists were the canary in the coal mine for this human rights crisis. At the start of the crisis, the EU was well placed as a donor to Burundi and partner of the government. In response, it initiated intense political dialogue, launched consultations under article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement in October 2015, and finally suspended all aid conducted through the government in March 2016.

In recent years, human rights defenders in China have faced increasing intimidation, harassment, arbitrary detention and attacks.

The European Union (EU) and its member states are falling short on their commitment to support and protect human rights defenders (HRDs) who are facing mounting deadly threats and attacks, a new Amnesty International report out today shows.  

Around the world, people are speaking up and working to defend human rights, frequently at risk to their safety, freedom or life. They are harassed and intimidated, unjustly prosecuted and imprisoned. Some are tortured, killed or forcibly disappeared.

The severe crackdown on civil society in Saudi Arabia, especially since 2011 and more acutely since May 2018, has not been matched by a clear or resolute EU strategy to ensure the support and protection of HRDs. The policies of the EU and its member states have instead been characterized by restraint and a lack of creativity to overcome the obstacles associated with supporting HRDs in an already severely restricted environment. While some positive practices have been adopted in the past four years, these have often failed to improve the situation of individual HRDs due to a lack of ownership and follow up on the part of the EU and its member states.

The EU’s human rights policy in Russia has long had to contend with divergent EU member state positions and political considerations related to Russia’s perceived strategic and economic importance to Europe. The suspension of the political framework for EU-Russia dialogue following the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the increasingly tense EU-Russia relations characterized by occasional diplomatic and security flare ups, have presented a further obstacle to the EU’s HRD policy.

On 17 July 2019,also the World Day for International Justice, the Burundian Court of Appeal of Ntahangwa confirmed the sentence of human rights defender Germain Rukuki. The decision was issued in a public hearing without Germain and his defence being notified. On 22 July, six days after the decision was issued, they were finally informed.

The Cypriot government offers the last hope for a Syrian man to return to his family in Cyprus, said Amnesty International as they launched a new campaign to #BringAhmedHome.

• Amnesty International spokespeople available for interview • Press conference opposite administrative court of Paris at 11.00 25 April

Responding to a news report that more than 700 refugees and migrants in Libya were trapped in a detention centre in Qasr bin Ghasher in close proximity to intense armed clashes in Tripoli, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Magdalena Mughrabi, said: