Asylum-seekers were denied access to asylum; the police pushed back and abused people entering irregularly. The legal framework on gender-based violence was improved, but cases continued to attract minor penalties. Access to abortion remained severely constrained. Same-sex couples were granted the...

Responding to yesterday’s arrest in Croatia of activist and member of the band Pussy Riot, Aysoltan Niyazov, who faces possible extradition to Turkmenistan, Amnesty International’s Julia Hall, Deputy Director for Europe, said: “The Croatian authorities know that Aysoltan Niyazov’s activism would...

An investigation by the EU’s independent oversight body has found that the European Commission (EC) failed to ensure that fundamental human rights were respected in EU-funded border operations by Croatian authorities since 2018. During that time, widespread abuses against migrants and asylum...

Croatian authorities have consistently assaulted refugees and migrants and denied them access to asylum, in contravention of European and International law, said Amnesty International, in response to a damning report released by the Council of Europe’s Committee on Prevention of Torture (CPT)...

Reacting to today’s judgement by the European Court of Human Rights that Croatia violated the rights of Madina Hussiny, a six-year-old girl who was hit and killed by a train after being pushed back to Serbia in 2017, Massimo Morratti, Deputy Director for Europe at Amnesty International, said: “This...

Spokespeople available Responding to a new investigation by Lighthouse Reports which documents how authorities in several European Union (EU) countries have violently rounded up migrants and asylum-seekers and summarily returned them to countries outside EU borders, Jelena Sesar, Balkans Researcher...

As the European Court of Human Rights considers a landmark case on climate change brought by six young people from Portugal against 33 European countries, Amnesty International and other human rights organizations and academics have intervened in the case today. They have provided the Court with...

EU: Inquiry into European complicity in Croatian border violence against migrants and refugees ‘significant’ The European Ombudsman’s Office has today announced that it will open an inquiry into the possible failure of the European Commission to ensure that Croatian authorities respected...

Following reports that two Croatian police officers have been criminally charged for beating a migrant from Afghanistan who was stopped close to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jelena Sesar, Amnesty International’s Researcher for Balkans said: “This is the first time that a police officer...

Croatia: Fresh evidence of police abuse and torture of migrants and asylum-seekers In a horrifying escalation of police human rights violations at the Croatian border with Bosnia, a group of migrants and asylum seekers was recently bound, brutally beaten and tortured by officers who mocked their...

Europe: Mass protests provide hope as rights and judicial independence eroded People’s rights are being violated by governments in Europe and Central Asia, who are cracking down on protests and seeking to erode the independence of the judiciary to avoid accountability, Amnesty International said...

European governments are complicit in the systematic, unlawful and frequently violent pushbacks and collective expulsions of thousands of asylum seekers to squalid and unsafe refugee camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said Amnesty International in a report published today. Pushed to the edge:...

Following the final verdict by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Europe Director said: “Today – a week after landmark sentencing of Ratko Mladic – judges at the tribunal have brought down their gavel for the...