Launched in 1999 and updated regularly, Statewatch News includes our own reporting and writing as well as articles, announcements, documents and analyses from elsewhere on civil liberties, EU policies and state practices. You can receive updates in your inbox by signing up to our mailing list, or use our RSS feed to get instant alerts.
"After the war, European states actually scrambled to preserve their empires and use them to claim geopolitical leverage vis-à-vis the dominant superpowers to the east and the west, the Soviet Union and the US."
Including: EU aid and development funding has provided €215 million for border security in Morocco since 2001 - New Detention Centres Planned on Greek Islands Despite Ruling Against Island Conditions - EU countries warned of 'lost generation' of young refugees - Deportations: Council Presidency proposes systematic monitoring of readmission cooperation and sanctions for non-compliance
"General Denis Sergeev, the Russian spy who traveled to Barcelona in 2017 on the eve of the October 1 illegal referendum in Catalonia, carried out subversive operations in a dozen or so countries in Europe and Asia."
"On 21 November 2019, in the case of Z.B. vs. Greece, ECHR?LE2.2bR, the European Court of Human Rights granted an interim application preventing the Greek authorities from deporting an Afghan man, ‘Z.B’, to Turkey from Lesvos. Z.B, who is represented by Legal Centre Lesvos, was due to be deported the next morning had it not been for the intervention of the Court."
"The bodies of five migrant women, two of them washed ashore, were recovered Sunday, the Italian coast guard said, as search efforts continued in rough seas near the tiny island of Lampedusa for around another dozen people feared missing in the capsizing of a fishing boat."
"The “modern” police law planned by the red-green Senate will extend the powers of the police even further. The new law will permit police to use electronic ankle bracelets to monitor so-called “threats” around the clock."
"More than 60 doctors have written an open letter saying they feared Julian Assange's health was so bad that the WikiLeaks founder could die inside a top-security British prison."
"Over the past decade, a powerful identification technology has emerged that will create the engineroom for a new era of mass surveillance across the world. This technique has the capacity to scan and identify the faces of thousands or even millions of people in real time. It must be stopped."
"The ePrivacy Regulation aims to strengthen users’ right to privacy and create protective measures against online tracking. Instead, EU states turned it into a surveillance toolkit,” said Estelle Massé, Senior Policy Analyst at EDRi member’s Access Now."
"The EU Parliament is to deal with a new agreement on the exchange of passenger data with Canada."
"As any data protection lawyer and privacy activist will attest, there’s nothing like a well-designed and enforced data protection law to keep the totalitarian tendencies of modern Big Brother in check."
"Today, the Commissioner published her written observations submitted to the European Court of Human Rights in connection with the case of S.S. and others v. Italy. This case concerns the interception and rescue operation of a boat in distress in the Mediterranean Sea, carrying around 150 persons who had left Libya, and the alleged human rights violations resulting from this operation."
"MEPs are reeling after being shut out of a Council hearing under the Article 7 procedure against Hungary for systemic breaches to the rule of law, as the situation in the country further deteriorates."
Since 2001, almost €215 million has been provided to Morocco by the EU to finance border security projects. Human rights abuses against migrants and refugees committed by Moroccan authorities call into question whether financial support from the EU to Moroccan border security should continue.
"Greece’s Coast Guard said Friday it rescued 400 refugees and migrants in the last 24 hours in 10 different incidents in the sea area near the city Alexandroupolis and the islands of Lesvos and Chios."
"The European Union is due to relaunch its powerful executive arm under the new leadership of the German conservative Ursula von der Leyen from 1 December but faces legal risks after Britain refused to name its representative for the European Commission."
"Overcrowded, open camps that have become home to 33,000 asylum seekers on five Aegean islands are to be shut down and replaced with closed centres."
"Greece’s migration minister said that Turkey needs to stop “blackmail” if it wants more EU aid, saying its loaded language had prompted a spike in movement toward Greek shores."
"The Committee against Torture this afternoon concluded its consideration of the seventh periodic report of Portugal on measures taken to implement the provisions of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Committee Members raised concerns about detention conditions, including the use of solitary confinement for juveniles. They also broached racially-motivated police violence. In that regard, the outcome of the Cova da Moura trial was flagged. "
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