The government response to COVID-19 raised human rights concerns, including in relation to health, asylum-seekers, policing and privacy. The government established extra care centres for survivors of rape and sexual violence. The Wallonia region authorized arms transfers to the Yemen conflict.

Amnesty International welcomes the release of Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, who was unjustly imprisoned in Iran. However, the circumstances of his release confirm the organization’s earlier concerns that the Iranian authorities held him hostage to swap him with intelligence agent...

Belgian lawmakers must urgently ensure that a bill enacting a bilateral treaty between Iran and Belgium is fully consistent with Belgium’s obligations under international human rights law. In particular, the bill should include adequate judicial safeguards to prevent the treaty being used to grant...

Amnesty International welcomes Belgium’s engagement in the UPR process, its full or partial acceptance of 259 out of 308 recommendations and its acceptance to regularly involve civil-society in the follow-up to the review.

Amnesty International submits this document in advance of consideration by the United Nations (UN) Committee Against Torture (hereinafter the Committee) of Belgium’s fourth periodic report on the measures taken to give effect to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading...

Amnesty International delivered this oral statement on ethnic profiling by the Belgian police to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination ahead of its examiniation of Belgium in April 2021.

This compilation of recommendations are made to seven of the states under review in the 38th session of the UN Universal Periodic Review (Belgium, Denmark, Mozambique, Paraguay, Sierra Leone, Singapore and Somalia) and address key human rights concerns in each country.

Amnesty International submits this document in advance of consideration by the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (hereinafter the Committee) of Belgium’s combined 20th-22nd periodic reports on the implementation of the International Convention on the...

Belgium’s Constitutional Court is expected to rule on whether a 19th century Belgian law criminalising insults to the King is in line with domestic and international human rights law. The Belgian Constitutional Court’s assessment will have important consequences in proceedings against Josep Arenas...

Discrimination against Muslims in the counterterrorism context in Europe is a longstanding human rights concern. In the last two decades in particular, Muslims’ lawful religious, cultural, and political activities and affiliations have been construed as “dangerous” enough to justify significant...

In this submission Amnesty International evaluates the commitments by Belgium to establish a National Human Rights Institution, to establish a national preventative mechanism and to respect the rights of asylum-seekers and migrants. The submission also looks at specific measures that the...

On 11 March, the World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a global pandemic and called on states to take urgent measures to tackle it. This report covers 12 countries and exposes how the enforcement of the ‘lockdown measures’ adopted by many European states have...

This submission provides an overview of Amnesty International’s main concerns under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. These include concerns related to the human rights implementation and prevention architecture, extraterritorial obligations, persons deprived of liberty,...