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.

On 26 September 2023, Amnesty International called on High Representative Josep Borrell to lead on an ambitious European Union (EU) response to human rights violations in the conflict in Sudan.

Extensive war crimes are being committed in Sudan as the conflict between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) ravages the country, Amnesty International said in a new report. 

Israeli authorities must be held accountable for committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians, Amnesty International said today in a damning new report. The investigation details how Israel enforces a system of oppression and domination against the Palestinian people wherever it has control over their rights. This includes Palestinians living in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), as well as displaced refugees in other countries.

Following a recent investigation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, Amnesty International has gathered new evidence that the Myanmar military is committing war crimes and other human rights violations. The military operation is ongoing, raising the prospect of additional crimes being committed.

Reacting to the onward voyage of the Saudi Arabian state shipping company’s vessel, the Bahri Yanbu, from the Spanish port of Santander this afternoon, Ara Marcen Naval, Deputy Director for Arms Control and Human Rights at Amnesty International, said:

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

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

As Federica Mogherini visits the epicentre of the Rohingya refugee emergency, she must commit the EU to provide Bangladesh with whatever support it can to continue to host the refugees in humane, sustainable and dignified conditions