Schlagwort: Amnesty International

The decision by French authorities to deny visa access to prominent Palestinian human rights defender and General Director of Al-Haq, Shawan Jabarin, who was due to travel to the country this week as part for an advocacy trip, is an alarming setback for human rights.

Al-Haq, the oldest Palestinian human rights organisation and a pioneer of the human rights movement in the Middle East, is one of three prominent Palestinian human rights organizations – alongside the Gaza-based Al-Mezan and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) –  facing US government sanctions for their work with the International Criminal Court (ICC). In 2021, Al-Haq was also unlawfully criminalised by Israel after decades of smear campaigns and attacks against the organisation and its staff.

“It is both shameful and deeply troubling that a human rights defender who has dedicated his life to pursuing justice for international crimes is denied entry into the Schengen area, while individuals wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity are able to travel freely. This stark and absurd double standard should prompt urgent reflection among European states on their commitment to accountability and the consistent application of international justice,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

“It is both shameful and deeply troubling that a human rights defender who has dedicated his life to pursuing justice for international crimes is denied entry into the Schengen area, while individuals wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity are able to travel freely.” 

Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International

“Al-Haq, Al-Mezan and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights have made an immense contribution to the global human rights movement, courageously and rigorously documenting abuses, speaking out for victims, and defending the very universal values that France claims to uphold.  In 2018, France awarded Al-Haq the prestigious French Republic Award in recognition of its human rights work, which was received by Mr. Jabarin himself. We urge the French authorities to reverse their decision immediately and commit to granting visa access to Mr Jabarin,”said Alexis Deswaef, President of International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).

Alongside the three Palestinian organisations, the US sanctions list also includes eight ICC judges, three ICC prosecutors and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“In 2025, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine, was welcomed in Hungary, and a Libyan ICC fugitive was able to enter and leave Italy, thereby entering and leaving the Schengen zone without arrest or objection from other Schengen area states. In the meantime, human rights defenders seeking to support justice are being punished and prevented from doing their legitimate human rights work,” said Alison Smith, CICC Secretariat Director.

Several countries, including France, have spoken out publicly against the sanctions, with French President Emmanuel Macron directly requesting President Trump to lift the sanctions against French ICC Judge Nicolas Guillou. They have also denounced Israel’s criminalisation of human rights organisations. France must maintain this stance and refuse to be perceived as caving to US sanctions or Israeli designations.

In October 2025, a month after the US designation against the Palestinian organisations, Shawan Jabarin’s Schengen visa application was rejected by “one or several EU member states” on the ground that he would be a “threat to public policy or internal security”. On 10 April 2026, Mr Jabarin was scheduled to travel to Europe for a series of public engagements about the sanctions and concrete steps the EU and its member states could take to support and protect the ICC and those cooperating with it. These engagements are being conducted together with the directors of PCHR and Al Mezan and several international NGOs. Given his prior Schengen visa rejection, Mr Jabarin applied for national visas from the countries he was supposed to visit: Belgium, France and the Netherlands.

At the eleventh hour, France denied his national visa, preventing him from participating in upcoming briefings with the French Parliament, civil society organisations and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Further, France’s delay in providing a response to Belgian and Dutch authorities prevented Mr Jabarin from participating in several planned engagements at the European Parliament and at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Netherlands and Belgium did subsequently issue a national visa that enables Mr Jabarin to participate in the remaining planned engagements in the Netherlands. However, the refusal by France has already prevented Mr Jabarin from participating in some engagements and restricted his conduct of essential human rights and advocacy work, including on the impact of sanctions on the international justice ecosystem.

This denial of a visa sends an extremely alarming message from France, especially in the context of the global shrinking space for human rights work worldwide and the escalating attacks on international law itself. The refusal to issue a visa is yet another example of restrictions against human rights defenders. If linked to US sanctions or Israeli designations, it would be an extremely worrying escalation in the extra-territorial application of sanctions against those working on justice and accountability.

Signatories:

• Amnesty International
• Coalition for the International Criminal Court
• International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
• No Peace Without Justice
• Avocats Sans Frontières
• ECCHR
• Euromed Rights

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Proposed amendments to India’s digital regulation rules would grant authorities wide-ranging powers to police, censor and remove users’ content, Amnesty International has warned in a new legal analysis of the proposals. 

The amendments to India’s IT rules – which govern digital media content – are currently open for public consultation before they are debated in the country’s parliament. They include new powers that would enable the authorities to take down content that they deem inappropriate without a complaint; extend vague and overbroad categories to classify and prohibit content; require intermediaries’ to follow extra-legislative administrative orders to retain their legal immunity; facilitate the removal of “news and current affairs content” posted by ordinary users; and expand powers over users’ personal data. 

“The rules governing online spaces have progressively become more restrictive, with each successive amendment expanding state control over digital content,” said Aakar Patel, Amnesty International India’s Chair of Board. 

These amendments go further still, effectively turning social media platforms into enforcement arms of the state

Aakar Patel, Amnesty International India’s Chair of Board

“These amendments go further still, effectively turning social media platforms into enforcement arms of the state. They contain a raft of alarming provisions that provide the authorities with intrusive and arbitrary powers over online content, which trample over users’ freedom of expression and privacy and pave way for mass and prolonged surveillance. 

“We urge the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to immediately withdraw these amendments.” 

In its submission to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Amnesty International outlines its key concerns regarding the amendments, including: 

• How current rules that apply only to publishers and intermediaries would be broadened to cover “news and current affairs content” posted by ordinary users, extending authorities’ powers of censorship to ordinary users  
• How the amendments would confer wide-ranging powers on authorities to order the deletion or modification of content, and to impose a range of penalties on users, without a complaint mechanism and without independent or judicial oversight.   
• How the amendments would make the intermediaries’ legal immunity from liability for third-party content contingent on following executive orders passed by the Indian government without legislative or public scrutiny.  
• How the amendments would allow authorities to retain users’ data for an indefinite period, without clear limitations, independent oversight, and strict necessity requirements. 

In recent months, there have been several high-profile cases of online censorship in India. They include stand-up comedian Pulkit Mani, who had a satirical video in which he mimicked Prime Minister Narendra Modi blocked from Instagram in March. 

On 18 March, MeitY ordered X, the social media platform, to block 12 accounts under Section 69A of the IT Act, which X did despite subsequently raising concerns that most of the content on those accounts did not appear to break the law. 

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Today Amnesty International Ireland and Human Rights First published their joint letter to the Irish Ministers for Transport and Foreign Affairs and Trade urging an end to the U.S. administration’s use of Shannon Airport as a refuelling stopover for unlawful removal flights by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  The organizations called on the Irish Government to refuse to facilitate in any way the Trump administration’s violations of international law, and for reparations to be made to the individuals forcibly removed.

According to data gathered by ICE Flight Monitor, based at Human Rights First, U.S. flights, using leased civilian aircrafts, passed through Shannon Airport to conduct five separate ICE removal operations between May 2025 and February 2026. These operations took people to South Sudan, Eswatini, Rwanda and Israel, and have included third country removals where individuals are forcibly taken to countries where they have no connection.  

“People across Ireland and the world look on in horror as the Trump administration continues implementing its vile, racist and xenophobic executive orders that dehumanize and criminalize people who are, or are perceived to be, migrants and refugees. The administration has brazenly violated the right to due process by unlawfully removing people and subjecting some to enforced disappearance,” said Stephen Bowen, Executive Director, Amnesty International Ireland.

“The Irish Government decides how its sovereign airspace and territory is used by other states. It must play no role whatsoever in the United States’ inhuman, cruel and extreme mass immigration detention and removal machine.”

Stephen Bowen, Executive Director, Amnesty International Ireland

“To carry out its mass deportation campaign, the Trump administration is flouting international law and cutting deals with dictators. It is also endangering lives, through its opaque web of third country agreements to send people against their will to countries where they have no connection”, said Uzra Zeya, CEO of Human Rights First.

“Beyond their cruelty, these agreements reflect a transactional foreign policy driven by xenophobia, and they undermine due process and human rights globally. Ireland should play no part in facilitating these unlawful removals, including to third countries notorious for rights abuses.”

On 12 March, Amnesty International and Human Rights First wrote to the two Ministers with details of five flights on which at least 28 individuals were unlawfully removed. These included forced removals of individuals to countries, such as South Sudan and Eswatini, to which they have no ties and where they are facing arbitrary and prolonged detention and other abuses.  

In the letter, Amnesty International and Human Rights First sought important information on measures taken by the Irish Government. To date, there has been no response to the letter.

In the meantime, the U.S. administration has used Shannon Airport again to refuel two aircrafts that landed at Poland’s Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport on 17 March 2026. Amnesty International and Human Rights First believe that both flights carried a number of Ukrainian nationals, who were likely then taken by land to the Polish-Ukrainian border and forcibly transferred to Ukraine. Conditions in Ukraine are not safe for returns, and the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, continues to call on states not to forcibly return people to Ukraine.

According to reporting, Ireland’s Department of Transport has said private aircraft do not require permission to refuel at Shannon, even if contracted by the U.S. Government. However, while civil aircraft do not require state permission to land for refueling under the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, all states are required to interpret the Convention’s provisions in a manner that complies with international human rights law.

“The Department of Transport’s public responses are just not good enough. There are depressing parallels with Ireland’s failure two decades ago to stop CIA-leased civil aircraft using Shannon as a stopover for rendition operations during the U.S. ‘war on terror’. Despite promises to ‘enforce the prohibition on the use of Irish airspace, airports and related facilities for purposes not in line with the dictates of international law’, it appears that no concrete actions were ever taken,” Stephen Bowen said.

Amnesty International and Human Rights First are calling on the Irish government to stand for human rights, justice, and the dignity of all people.  The government must take all necessary measures to prevent any further use of Irish airspace, airport and related facilities by the U.S. for unlawful third country removals. It must call on the U.S. – and countries that are the final destination of U.S. flights – to release all individuals who have been removed and placed in arbitrary detention, and ensure they are protected from refoulement, treated with dignity, and provided with an effective remedy. Finally, it should offer those individuals safe passage and relocation to Ireland.

“The Government’s timidity in its dealings with President Trump is already a cause for concern. If Ireland is facilitating the monstrous ICE project, then we fear the Government has lost its way. Rather than cower and capitulate, it must show courage, compassion and principle,” Stephen Bowen said.

Note to editors

ICE Flight Monitor is a data-driven initiative that systematically tracks and documents U.S. immigration enforcement flights based at Human Rights First  – see ICE Flight Monitor – Human Rights First. Human Rights First is a U.S.-based, non-partisan non-profit, organisation that advocates for human rights globally and for U.S. compliance with its domestic and international human rights commitments.

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One month after the Cuban authorities announced the imminent release of 51 detainees and following the recent announcement of a pardon for 2,010 people on 2 April 2026, Amnesty International warns that the measures remain marked by a lack of transparency and discretion, with no guarantee of full release or genuine respect for human rights. The organization reiterates its call for the immediate and unconditional release of all people detained for political reasons and an end to the repression of those who are simply exercising their human rights.

To date, the Cuban authorities have not published a complete official list of the people granted releases or pardons. Experience from previous processes shows that opaque and discretionary measures can leave people under arbitrary restrictions, constant surveillance, bans on leaving the country and the permanent threat of being sent back to prison, perpetuating a climate of control and fear.

“The Cuban authorities continue to administer freedom as if it were a discretionary concession and not an obligation of the state. It is time to replace partial, opaque, revocable and unwarranted announcements with the immediate and unconditional release of all people imprisoned solely for exercising their human rights, and the definitive cessation of the use of freedom as a political bargaining chip”, said Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.

The Cuban authorities continue to administer freedom as if it were a discretionary concession and not an obligation of the state.”

Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.

Amnesty International recalls that the processes of release or pardon do not replace the state’s obligation to end arbitrary detention, overturn unjust sentences or fully compensate victims. In particular, it stresses that no person should be deprived of their liberty, or have their rights restricted, for expressing critical opinions, demonstrating peacefully or reporting on the reality of the country.

To date, none of the people recognized by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience in Cuba – Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Maykel Castillo Pérez (Osorbo), Félix Navarro Rodríguez, Saily Navarro Álvarez, Roberto Pérez Fonseca, Loreto Hernández García and Donaida Pérez Paseiro – have been released.

Following the announcement of pardons, human rights organizations monitoring the situation in the country have been unable to verify the release of any person detained for political reasons.

These new announcements come against a backdrop of intensifying state repression. In March 2026, social protests broke out in the city of Morón, province of Ciego de Ávila, amid prolonged blackouts, fuel shortages and the sustained deterioration of living conditions. According to information documented by the human rights organization Cubalex, at least 85 people were arrested after protests during the month of March, including at least two teenagers.

The crackdown has also intensified against digital content creators, as well as their families. In recent weeks, Amnesty International has documented threats, surveillance, arbitrary detentions and pressure against young people who use social media to question the authorities from within the island.

For example, content creators from the digital media channel El4tico, who were subjected to warrantless searches of the house where they produced their content, remain arbitrarily detained

and face criminal proceedings for reporting; young people from the Fuera de la Caja project, whose relatives reported intimidation by state security; and the reprisals and criminalization reported by Ana Bensi and her mother, in a context of harassment linked to their social media activity.

“The repression in Cuba is not only directed against those who protest or against historical figures of dissent. It also targets young people who report, comment or create content, and deliberately punishes their mothers, fathers and relatives as a form of coercion. This use of the family environment to sow fear reveals the extent of the closure of civic space in Cuba”, said Ana Piquer.

The repression in Cuba is not only directed against those who protest or against historical figures of dissent. It also targets young people who report, comment or create content, and deliberately punishes their mothers, fathers and relatives as a form of coercion.”

Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.

All this occurs in the midst of a crisis due to the deterioration of living conditions that continue to affect access to basic rights and services such as electricity, food, medicine, transport and other essential goods, deepening the daily suffering of the population.

Amnesty International reiterates that no measure, internal or external, should aggravate the suffering of the Cuban people. In this regard, the organization maintains its rejection of unilateral external coercive measures that worsen living conditions on the island, while stressing that they do not exempt the Cuban state from its obligation to respect, protect and guarantee human rights.

The announcement of contact and conversations between officials from Cuba and the United States adds a new political dimension to the current context. On 13 March, Miguel Díaz-Canel publicly confirmed that representatives of both governments had held exchanges to address bilateral differences and identify possible areas of cooperation, without detailing their content. For Amnesty International, any dialogue process must centre around the human rights and humanitarian needs of all people in Cuba, without discrimination.

“Human rights are non-negotiable: the future of Cuba must be agreed and determined with full accountability, justice and reparations to those who live under repression, scarcity and a lack of freedoms”, concluded Ana Piquer.

Human rights are non-negotiable: the future of Cuba must be agreed and determined with full accountability, justice and reparations to those who live under repression, scarcity and a lack of freedoms.”

Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact press@amnesty.org

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Responding to the Italian government’s long-overdue decision to suspend the Memorandum of Understanding between Italy and Israel on defence cooperation, Riccardo Noury, spokesperson for Amnesty International Italy, said:  

“Israel continues to act in defiance of international law and human rights: the genocide in the Gaza Strip is ongoing, the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank proceeds alongside an unprecedented escalation of violence, and attacks and mass displacement in Lebanon continue. Any military cooperation between the Italian government and Israel risks making Italy complicit in violations of international humanitarian law and crimes under international law.

“Now we need consistency. The Italian government must support the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement – a demand backed by over one million European citizens who have signed the European Citizens’ Initiative in just three months. 

“The time has come for states to move beyond mere expressions of regret or dismay. They must take decisive action to pressure Israel to end its genocide in Gaza and the systematic violation of human rights across the Occupied Palestinian Territory and neighbouring countries.” 

Background 

The Memorandum was set to expire on 13 April 2026 and would have otherwise been renewed automatically for five years. This move follows sustained pressure from Italian civil society calling for a change in direction and represents an initial breakthrough. 

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