Armita Garawand, a 16-year-old schoolgirl, remains in a coma after falling unconscious on 1 October 2023 at a Tehran metro amid reports that a confrontation with somebody enforcing Iran’s degrading and discriminatory compulsory veiling laws led to her hospitalisation. Her hospitalisation comes against a backdrop of Iranian authorities intensified oppression against women and girls in recent months.
On 10 October, Amnesty International issued a letter to High Representative Josep Borrell and EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs ahead of their emergency meeting in relation to the horrific events unfolding in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
As civil society organizations that work to ensure that respect for human rights is central to national and international counterterrorism policies, we are writing to urge the European Union in its role as co-chair, with Egypt, of the Global Counter Terrorism Forum (GCTF) to take steps to recenter human rights within its work on global counter-terrorism policies.
On 20 March, the European Commission and the Swedish EU presidency will host a high-level conference in Brussels aimed at coordinating the response of international donors and raising funds for early recovery and relief efforts in both Türkiye and Syria. The conference will be attended by EU member states, candidate countries and potential candidates, neighbouring and partner countries, G20 members, Member States of the Gulf Cooperation, as well as the UN, international organisations, humanitarian actors, and international and European financial institutions. This paper outlines Amnesty International’s key recommendations to the EU, EU member states and other countries participating in the “Donors’ Conference for the people of Türkiye and Syria affected by the earthquake”.
At their forthcoming meeting on 20 March, EU foreign affairs ministers should publicly press the Tunisian authorities to reverse their crackdown against perceived critics, four human rights groups said today.
The 20th of March 2023 Foreign Affairs Council’s exchange of views on the situation in Tunisia will take place amid an unprecedented campaign to crush dissent and roll back human rights and freedoms Tunisians have worked hard to secure since the country’s 2011 revolution. We are deeply concerned, in particular, about the undermining of judicial independence, the arrests of critics and political opponents, the military trials of civilians, and the ongoing crackdown on freedom of expression and threats to civil society.
Earlier this month, a delegation of European diplomats visited Huwara and Za’tara, two Palestinian towns in the Nablus Governorate, where Israeli settlers launched brutal attacks.
The abject failure of Spanish and Moroccan authorities to provide truth and ensure justice for at least 37 sub-Saharan African people killed and 77 others still missing following the deadly events that took place on the border of Spain’s Melilla enclave, smacks of a cover-up, said Amnesty International in a report published ahead of the six-month anniversary of the tragedy.
As civil society and Afghan diaspora organisations, we are deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and the treatment of Afghan asylum seekers and refugees in Europe.One year after the Taliban takeover, the country is in a state of lawlessness without a constitution. The overall security, economic and human rights situation is deteriorating, and people’s suffering is increasing. Afghanistan’s economy has collapsed, and the country is confronting a dire humanitarian crisis, with 23 million people facing acute hunger. The general level of conflict has dropped compared to before August 2021 since the Taliban was a party to the conflict and has taken power, but the country is far from stable. Targeted killings and systematic attacks against religious and ethnic minorities, particularly against the Hazara community, revenge killings by the Taliban against former government officials and former military forces have significantly increased. Freedom of expression and movement of mainly women and girls has been severely restricted. Other rights are violated by measures taken by the Taliban, such as the ban on secondary school education for girls. Many human rights violations and incidents are going unreported in the absence of a vibrant civil society and due to the fear of Taliban persecution.The UN Assistance Mission on Afghanistan (UNAMA) recently published a worrying report about the country’s security situation and widespread human rights violations. Furthermore, Amnesty International reported widespread crackdown and torture against women activists.
European leaders are putting short term interests ahead of human rights by supporting the Egyptian government as it continues its assault on human rights, said Amnesty International today, ahead of meetings at the EU-Egypt Association Council on Sunday 19 June 2022 and Monday 20 June 2022.
Civil Society Organizations are writing ahead of the upcoming EU-Egypt Association Council meeting to urge HR/VP Borrell and EU member states’ Foreign Ministers to use this opportunity to raise concerns over serious human rights violations and crimes under international law perpetrated by Egyptian authorities, and to set concrete and measurable human rights benchmarks as criteria for progress in the EU-Egypt bilateral relations.
Ahead of the first EU-Saudi Arabia meeting on human rights on 27 September, Amnesty International is calling on EU leaders to hold Saudi Arabia’s government to account for its campaign to silence dissent, which has accelerated in recent months.