Schlagwort: human rights

Ahead of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, said:

“The people of Ukraine have now endured another year of full-scale aggression, the most devastating so far in terms of its humanitarian consequences, and deadliest in terms of civilian casualties since 2022. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his senior officials indicted by the International Criminal Court remain fugitives from international justice.

“Despite the ongoing aggression, international resolve to oppose Russia’s crimes under international law and support its victims has come under increasing strain in recent months, particularly since the beginning of Donald Trump’s presidency.Commitments to justice and human rights are weakening as powerful actors grow emboldened to disregard international law and further erode the rules-based order. 

“We see this in rhetoric minimizing Russia’s responsibility for serious violations, and in proposals suggesting that impunity for aggression and other crimes is an acceptable price to pay to end the fighting. We also see it in the reckless, unchecked attacks on the International Criminal Court, and in recent limitations in assistance to Ukrainian refugees, with some states suggesting that parts of the country are now safe for return. 

“Injustice must be addressed, not normalized. Impunity must be challenged, not embedded in peace proposals.

Any pressure on Ukraine to compromise on accountability for war-related crimes or to accept Russia’s territorial and other demands is as morally repugnant as it is unlawful.

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns

“Ukrainian civilians continue to endure daily indiscriminate attacks. Critical infrastructure indispensable for survival has been relentlessly destroyed, placing millions of lives at risk. Russian forces continue to torture prisoners of war, and terrorize and deport civilians in the territories they occupy, subject teachers to forcible labour, and indoctrinate children and deny them their identity. All the while, Moscow demands control over more Ukrainian territory as part of ‘peace negotiations’.

“The world must not forget that since Russia’s occupation and illegal annexation of Crimea 12 years ago, it has brought devastation and immense suffering to the people of Ukraine, both in the occupied territory and beyond. Millions have been displaced, countless families have been left homeless, and far too many lives lost. Russia’s aggression — a crime under international law — has tested not only the courage and resilience of Ukrainians, but also the resolve of the international community to uphold human rights and ensure justice.

“Any pressure on Ukraine to compromise on accountability for war-related crimes or to accept Russia’s territorial and other demands is as morally repugnant as it is unlawful. There must be no impunity for crimes under international law, and such crimes carry no statute of limitation.

“This is a critical moment for humanity. The resolve of the international community must not falter. It is paramount that the people of Ukraine receive truth, justice and reparations for the devastating impact this war has inflicted over the past twelve years — and continues to inflict on the country, its people, its land, and its future.”

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EU foreign ministers must use their meeting on 23 February with Nikolai Mladenov, Director-General of the Board of Peace and High Representative for Gaza, to demand that the board focuses on Palestinians’ rights, Amnesty International said.

The meeting in Brussels must also address the flaws of the Board of Peace mechanism and ensure it is aligned with human rights obligations under international law.

“The Board of Peace represents a dangerous assault on international law, and an attempt to create a parallel decision-making structure that bypasses and undermines the United Nations and international justice institutions.

The EU and its members states must be absolutely clear: this body is no substitute for the UN, the international human rights framework, or the global justice system painstakingly built over decades to uphold universal values, cooperation and equality.

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns.  

“When legal protections and the UN’s human rights and humanitarian architecture are needed more than ever, the EU must firmly resist any attempt to undermine them,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns.  

“By sidelining accountability and marginalizing Palestinians, this mechanism erases the centrality of victims and their rights, while normalizing the very power dynamics that have enabled Israel’s unlawful occupation, apartheid and its ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza to continue with impunity.”

“Any EU engagement that does not place Palestinians’ rights at its core risks complicity in violations, which are likely to occur if this fundamentally flawed mechanism is not urgently made rights-compliant and aligned with international law.”

Nearly one year ago, on 24 February 2025, the EU hosted Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s foreign minister at the EU-Israel Association Council. High Representative Kaja Kallas stated she was “glad to welcome” the foreign minister to Brussels and pledged that the EU would “continue to be an honest, open and viable, reliable partner to the region”.

Days later, Israel resumed its siege on Gaza, killing 15 paramedics and rescue workers, cut off electricity to a desalination plant and unilaterally ended a fragile truce by launching a series of deadly air strikes killing at least 412 Palestinians, including 174 children, in one of the bloodiest days of the genocide.

Since the announcement of the so-called “ceasefire” on 9 October 2025, Israeli authorities have continued committing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip. An arbitrary, constantly shifting demarcating line, known as the Yellow Line, effectively creates a no-go zone for Palestinians across nearly 60 percent of the Gaza Strip causing further mass forced displacement of Palestinians and exacerbating already inhumane living conditions, while cutting off Palestinians from most of their fertile agricultural zones.

Israel’s suspension of the registration of 37 humanitarian international NGOs, set to take effect within days, will close health facilities and field hospitals, halt food distribution and cut off life-saving care for Palestinians across the OPT. The effect is likely to be catastrophic. Medical evacuations from Gaza are already obstructed, restricted entry of indispensable supplies and equipment, including medical supplies, and Israel’s cruel blockade continues despite the International Court of Justice’s orders to immediately reverse it.

In 2025, a record number of new settlements were approved (54), outposts established (86), and Palestinian homes demolished in Area C (1,269) in the occupied West Bank. State-backed settler violence and Israel’s suffocating policies led to the full or partial displacement of 22 Palestinian communities, while Palestinians are routinely targeted with arbitrary detention without charges or trial and torture and other ill-treatment while locked up.

Meanwhile the Knesset is considering changing the law to allow Israeli courts to expand their use of the death penalty with provisions designed to be selectively used against Palestinians, further entrenching Israel’s cruel apartheid system.

“Israel is not just openly flouting international law and crossing each of the EU’s red lines, it is doing so with utterly brazen disregard, as evidenced by numerous statements made by leading Israeli policymakers. Yet the EU’s response remains one of appeasement – breaching international law, the human rights of Palestinians and the EU’s own rules,” continued Guevara-Rosas.  

“Lip service will not stop Israel from violating international law at will. A growing consensus is urging the EU to take principled action. This means suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which is conditional on respect for human rights, imposing a comprehensive arms embargo, enacting targeted sanctions against Israeli officials, and ending trade and investment with Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

“Now is precisely the moment to defend, uphold and enforce international law. Abandoning it would pose an existential threat for the EU and its legitimacy.”

Background

On 19 February, the first meeting of the Board of Peace was held in Washington. It is envisioned that 50 countries will join the Board of Peace, with 35 leaders showing interest so far. Of EU member states, Bulgaria and Hungary joined the Board of Peace as members. The EU, Cyprus, Czechia, Greece, Italy and Romania joined as observers.

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Responding to the Hong Kong Court of Appeal rejecting the appeals of 12 defendants in the ‘Hong Kong 47’ case, Amnesty International Hong Kong Overseas spokesperson Fernando Cheung said:

“The court’s dismissal of these appeals underlines the grave state of human rights in Hong Kong and once again demonstrates the politically motivated nature of the Hong Kong 47 case.

“None of these 12 defendants committed an internationally recognized crime; they have been serving lengthy sentences simply for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and participation in public affairs.

“It is deeply concerning that, since the introduction of ‘Article 23’ in 2024, at least eight defendants in the Hong Kong 47 case have reportedly been denied early release on the basis of vague and new national security justifications, in contrast to previous long-standing practice in Hong Kong.

“This shows how ‘Article 23’, like the Beijing-imposed National Security Law used to prosecute the Hong Kong 47, has been weaponized to impose additional punitive and retroactive measures against dissidents, including silencing those already behind bars.

“By failing to overturn these wrongful convictions and sentences today, the court has missed a critical opportunity to correct this mass injustice.

“Peaceful opposition to a government is not a crime, and all remaining jailed members of the Hong Kong 47 should be released immediately and unconditionally.”

Background 

The Hong Kong Court of Appeal today dismissed the appeals of 12 defendants in the ‘Hong Kong 47’ case.

In Hong Kong’s largest prosecution under the Beijing-imposed National Security Law, which was enacted in June 2020, 47 opposition figures were jointly charged with “conspiracy to commit subversion”. Thirty-one of the 47 pleaded guilty to the charge while 16 pleaded not guilty, two of whom were acquitted.

The charges against the “Hong Kong 47” relate to their organization and participation in self-organized “primaries” for the 2020 Legislative Council elections that were ultimately postponed by authorities on Covid-19 grounds before a new electoral system that strictly vetted who could stand for office was brought in.

To treat self-organized “primaries” conducted by political parties to select candidates to put forward for elections as a genuine threat to Hong Kong’s existence, territorial integrity or political independence does not meet the high threshold of application for “national security” that international human rights standards require.

In March 2024, Hong Kong introduced its Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, often referred to as the ‘Article 23’ law. The law has further squeezed people’s freedoms and enabled authorities to intensify their crackdown on peaceful activism in the city and beyond.

‘Article 23’ has also been used to impose additional punitive measures against dissidents already serving sentences. Before the enactment of ‘Article 23’, the Prison Rules provided that prisoners with good conduct were eligible for early release after serving two-thirds of their sentences. However, under new rules introduced pursuant to ‘Article 23’, the prison authorities can deny the early release on “national security” grounds.

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Responding to the release of the Belarusian opposition politician Mikalai Statkevich, detained since 2020, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director, said:

“Our relief at Mikalai Statkevich’s release is tempered by our indignation at the profound injustice and personal injury he has suffered during years behind bars serving an unfounded prison sentence, much of it in prolonged isolation. The latter is in violation of the absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment — his health severely deteriorated. Releasing a prisoner of conscience after he has suffered a stroke is not justice, it is the sign of its profound absence.

Our relief at Mikalai Statkevich’s release is tempered by our indignation at the profound injustice and personal injury he has suffered during years behind bars serving an unfounded prison sentence, much of it in prolonged isolation

Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director

“Belarusian authorities must end the practice of imprisoning of activists, journalists and other government critics for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly. The authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all persons unjustly detained and imprisoned on politically motivated charges, including prominent human rights defenders Nasta Loika, Marfa Rabkova, Valiantsin Stefanovich and Vital Chopik.

“The Belarusian authorities have committed egregious violations. They must fully comply with their international human rights obligations, and those responsible for violating them must be held to account.”

Background

On 19 February 2026, Mikalai Statkevich’s wife, Marina Adamovich, confirmed that her husband had been released from a high security penal colony after suffering a stroke and spending several weeks in a prison hospital.

Mikalai Statkevich, 69, a long-time government critic, prominent opposition leader and former presidential candidate, was arrested on 31 May 2020. He was later sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment on trumped up charges of “organization of mass unrest” (Article 293(1) of the Criminal Code).

On 11 September 2025 he was released as part of a political deal between Belarus and the US. However, unlike other released prisoners, he refused to be forcibly exiled from Belarus and was forcibly disappeared at the border, and secretly returned to a penal colony where he was held incommunicado thereafter. During his latest imprisonment starting in 2020, he was held in isolation for long periods of time, reportedly contracted COVID-19 multiple times and on 21 January 2026 suffered a stroke.

As of 20 February 2026, the Belarusian Human Rights Centre Viasna claims 1,144 individuals as political prisoners in Belarus. Its list however is not exhaustive and is based on publicly available information which the Belarusian authorities are seeking to restrict.

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Responding at the conclusion of the five-day AI Impact Summit that took place in New Delhi, India, Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director of Research, Advocacy Policy and Campaigns at Amnesty International, said: 

“It is unfortunate that the rhetoric of the AI impact Summit stood in stark contrast with the realities of harmful deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) systems in India, where these systems are powering a state-led agenda of authoritarian practices that is entrenching state and corporate control. The civic space is shrinking at an unprecedented speed and marginalized communities impacted by AI systems face constant harm and are demonized.  

“While India was lauded by world leaders for its technological progress, the human rights concerns arising out of technology deployment in the country were papered over. Amnesty International’s own research has shown that the deployment of harmful technologies such as facial recognition and automation in the public sector have threatened the right to privacy and social protection in India and have led to discrimination and exclusion of marginalized communities. Systems of mass surveillance are being expanded in an already pernicious context of rights abuses.  

“The Summit’s push on sovereignty, innovation and ‘democratisation’ feeds a global trend of turning AI into a race predicated on power accumulation and economic growth at all costs, rather than the collective global action needed to interrupt this. Achieving such a goal would only be possible if the Summit included strong civil society and impacted community engagement on rights concerns which was woefully absent from the start.  

“To date, AI summits have failed to advance the necessary regulations for a digitally safe future. If there is one clear takeaway from the India AI Impact Summit, it is that these gatherings have time and again proven largely irrelevant and ineffective at advancing binding rights protections or the safeguards necessary in the context of immense AI investment. Each year and at each summit, the gulf between state action to safeguard people’s rights and wellbeing, and an increasingly unchecked powerful AI industry keeps growing. They have advanced techno-solutionist narratives and soft governance instruments, where industry and government deepen their alliances. 

“States must urgently course‑correct the current AI trajectory, adopt binding guardrails that draw clear prohibitions around technologies that are incompatible with human rights, and create meaningful mechanisms for public participation so that people can genuinely shape the technological futures they want.”   

Background

The India AI Impact Summit took place from 16 to 20 February in New Delhi, India. 

In 2024, Amnesty International documented how public sector automated system in India’s state of Telangana excludes thousands of people from accessing social protection measures, including those related to food security, income, and housing. 

In 2021, Amnesty International investigated the human rights impacts of facial recognition technology in Hyderabad, India. 

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