June

30 June 2020

UN Committee Against Torture should launch inquiry into Italy's role in 'pull-backs' to Libya, says migrants' rights group

The Swiss Committee for the Defence of the Rights of Migrants has called on the UN Committee Against Torture to launch an inquiry into Italy's role in 'pull-backs' to Libya. A formal inquiry by the Committee would be able to establish the legal facts surrounding Italy's practices.

30 June 2020

Europe: COVID-19 lockdowns expose racial bias and discrimination within police

A new report from Amnesty International looks at how police forces across Europe have enforced lockdown restrictions - and finds that ethnic minorities and other marginalised groups have been disproportionately targeted.

29 June 2020

Press release: Hundreds of NGOs and individuals call for the revocation of Libya's maritime search and rescue zone

London, 29 June 2020 - The civil liberties organisation Statewatch has today delivered an open letter [1] with hundreds of signatories to Mr Kitack Lim, Secretary-General of International Maritime Organization (IMO), calling on him to revoke the Libyan maritime search and rescue (SAR) zone [2] in order to prevent the so-called Libyan Coast Guard undertaking 'pull-backs' of migrants to Libya, where they face violence, abuse and mistreatment.

24 June 2020

Council of Europe: Pushbacks and border violence against refugees must end

The Council of Europe issues a strong statement on World Refugee Day calling for an end to "blatant violations of refugees' rights."

24 June 2020

UK: BAME, refugee and migrant deaths in custody (2014 – 2020)

Updated statistics from the Institute of Race Relations lay bare the degree of impunity for the deaths in custody of black, ethnic minority, migrant and refugee persons.

23 June 2020

Dutch government under growing pressure to take in child refugees

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, protests across the Netherlands call for the government to take in 500 unaccompanied child refugees stuck in appalling conditions on Greek islands.

23 June 2020

UN agrees to urgent debate on racism and police violence

African states have requested an urgent debate at the UN Human Rights Council.

23 June 2020

Remote control: the EU-Libya collaboration in mass interceptions of migrants in the Central Mediterranean

A new report from Alarm Phone, Borderline Europe, Mediterranea and Sea-Watch.

22 June 2020

UK: Police presence in schools 'criminalises BME students'

A new report, Race and Racism in English Secondary Schools, argues that increasing the number of police in schools has particularly negative affects on black and other ethnic minority pupils.

19 June 2020

A role for Europol in making decisions on visa applications?

Since May 2018, EU institutions have been discussing changes to the Visa Information System (VIS), a large-scale database that holds data on tens of millions of applicants for short-stay Schengen visas. The proposed changes would introduce a number of new features, including a direct role for Europol in decision-making, if the Commission and Council get their way. This would be a significant extension of the agency's powers. There are further concerns about the agency becoming a "black box" for data from third countries that might be used against travellers to the EU.

19 June 2020

EU: Frontex splashes out: millions of euros for new technology and equipment

The approval of the new Frontex Regulation in November 2019 implied an increase of competences, budget and capabilities for the EU's border agency, which is now equipping itself with increased means to monitor events and developments at the borders and beyond, as well as renewing its IT systems to improve the management of the reams of data to which it will have access.

19 June 2020

CJEU to look at revocation of a guarantee of the grant of Austrian nationality

"C-118/20 JY concerns the procedure for acquisition of Austrian nationality, and more specifically at which moment during the procedure the previous nationalities have to be lost, and whether this is in conformity with the rules on EU citizenship."

18 June 2020

Digital technologies and borders: Joint submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism

With Privacy International, Fundaciòn Datos Protegidos and Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D), we produced a joint submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, in response to their call for input on how digital technologies deployed in the context of border enforcement and administration reproduce, reinforce, and compound racial discrimination.

15 June 2020

EU 'covered up' Croatia's failure to protect migrants from border brutality

The Guardian has revealed that European Commission officials were fearful of disclosing everything they knew about a mechanism they had funded in Croatia for monitoring violations of fundamental rights at the borders.

15 June 2020

Belgian Jewish community feeling vulnerable over scaling back counter-terror patrols

The Belgian government plans to reduce the number of soldiers deployed on the streets. They were originally deployed in 2015. The proposals have caused alarm amongst the Jewish community in Brussels.

15 June 2020

EU: Parliamentary oversight in the health crisis

A briefing paper from the Robert Schuman Foundation looks at how emergency measures implemented during the novel coronavirus pandemic have granted power to government executives at the expense of parliamentary oversight.

15 June 2020

A fourth pillar for the United Nations? The rise of counter-terrorism

A new report by Saferworld looks at the rise of the counter-terrroism policy within the UN institutions.

15 June 2020

Europol uses Palantir

Answers to Parliamentary questions shed some light on Europol's use of software made by controversial US company Palantir.

 

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