EuroMed Rights

Documenting human rights violations at Europe’s borders must NOT be a crime

On 6 October, the trial of human rights defender Tommy Olsen is scheduled to begin in Rhodes, Greece.

For more than eight years, Olsen and Aegean Boat Report have documented what happens at Europe’s external borders in the Aegean Sea, including pushbacks and other human rights violations.

His case raises concerns that EuroMed Rights repeatedly highlights: the shrinking space for civil society working on migration, the criminalisation of humanitarian assistance and human rights defenders, and the need for independent monitoring and accountability at Europe’s borders.

Olsen’s case is part of a wider trend of criminalisation of migration and solidarity across Europe. Human rights defenders must be able to document, denounce and challenge human rights violations without being criminalised for their work.

Ahead of 6 October, we stand in solidarity with Tommy Olsen and all those defending the rights of people on the move.

ALGERIA SOLIDARITY GROUP
No to the resumption of ex*****ons.
Press Release – October 5, 2026

We, the associations and member organisations of the Algeria Solidarity Group, united in our commitment to the defence and respect of human rights in Algeria, oppose any resumption of ex*****ons and reaffirm our firm opposition to the death penalty.
On August 30, 2026, following deadly wildfires that struck several regions of the country during the summer, the President of the Republic ordered a revision of the Penal Code aimed at reinstating the death penalty. The draft bill amending the Penal Code was presented on Monday, September 21, before the Committee on Legal Affairs of the National People’s Assembly. The draft bill was adopted by the Assembly on October 1, 2026, and has yet to be examined by the Council of the Nation.

We share the grief of the families bereaved by the fires. We unequivocally support the demand for effective and impartial justice. However, neither the gravity of the crimes committed nor the legitimate demand for justice for the victims can justify resorting to the death penalty.

The draft bill is particularly severe and incoherent. It punishes with death any intentional setting of a forest or field fire, regardless of the consequences of the fire, even in the absence of any deaths. It also targets fires linked to a “foreign party” or undermining national unity or public order. These notions are vague and open the door to arbitrariness. Yet no death sentence should be imposed on the basis of a criminal offence whose definition is vague.

The same penalty applies to those who incite, encourage or facilitate these acts, including on social media. The text also punishes with death the abduction of a child, regardless of the means used, as well as certain acts of violence committed against them. Finally, it prohibits the judge from granting mitigating circumstances. The judge would therefore have no discretion as to the sentence. Such a provision would be contrary to the fundamental principle of the individualisation of sentences.
We remind Algeria of the international political and legal commitments it has undertaken in support of the moratorium and of progress towards the definitive abolition of the death penalty.

No death row inmate has been executed in Algeria since 1993. This moratorium, in place for over thirty years, constitutes a major achievement in the field of human rights. A resumption of ex*****ons would be a terrible step backwards. This is why we reaffirm our principled opposition to the death penalty.
Since 2007, Algeria has voted in favour of the United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a universal moratorium on ex*****ons. In 2007, Algeria was the only country in the Arab world to support it. As recently as January 2026, the Minister of Justice presented the moratorium as being in line with Algeria’s international commitments.

Algeria’s international legal commitments are precise. Algeria has been a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights since 1989. This treaty reserves the death penalty for the “most serious crimes”. According to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, this refers solely to crimes of extreme gravity involving intentional killing. Generally speaking, it follows from the Covenant that any crime that does not directly and intentionally result in the death of a human being cannot be punishable by death. A fire that caused no deaths therefore does not fall into this category.
Furthermore, the Covenant establishes a principle of non-regression. While it does not prohibit the death penalty, it points towards its abolition. Thus, the Committee also specifies that a State cannot make a crime punishable by death if it was not already punishable by death before the State became a party to the Covenant. It also considers arbitrary any death penalty that a judge is required to impose. This is precisely what the prohibition of mitigating circumstances would produce.

Along the same lines, since 1999, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has also urged States parties to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to observe a moratorium on ex*****ons.

A few days before World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10, we reaffirm our opposition to the death penalty under all circumstances. We call on all those committed to the moratorium and opposed to the death penalty to mobilise. We call on the Algerian authorities not to introduce new offences punishable by death into legislation, to maintain the moratorium on ex*****ons, and to definitively abolish capital punishment, notably by ratifying the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Thirty-three years without an ex*****on: this achievement belongs to all Algerian society. It must be preserved.

List of signatories :
● Transmediterranean Alliance of Algerian Women
● Collective of Families of the Disappeared in Algeria
● EuroMed Rights
● Foundation for the Promotion of Rights
● Tharwa N'Fadhma N'Soumeur Association
● Safeguard Committee of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights
● Libertés Algérie
● Riposte Internationale

On 3 October 2013, 368 people lost their lives in a shipwreck off Lampedusa. Thirteen years on, we honour their memory and stand with survivors and the families of those who died or remain missing.

Remembering Lampedusa must also mean questioning Europe’s migration policies. We call on the EU and its Member States to move away from deterrence and the outsourcing of border control, and place human rights and the protection of life at the centre of their approach.

This means safe and legal pathways, effective search and rescue, access to asylum, and accountability for violations. It also means supporting solidarity with people on the move.

On 1–2 October, EuroMed Rights’ Working Group on Women’s Rights, Gender Justice and Individual Freedoms (WRJF) came together for its annual regional meeting, bringing members and partners from across the Euro-Mediterranean region around shared challenges and priorities.

Discussions addressed a range of pressing issues, including online gender-based violence, women and migration, shrinking civic space and the growing anti-gender and anti-rights backlash, the situation of Palestinian women, and access to justice.

EuroMed Rights is concerned by the charges and allegations announced by Egypt’s Ministry of Interior against six journalists affiliated with the investigative journalism platform “Matasaddaash” (متصدقش), including allegations portraying the journalists and the platform as affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

In a public response, “Matasaddaash” rejected the allegations, stating that neither the platform nor its journalists have any affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood or any political organisation. The platform also disputed claims that it is operated from abroad or receives foreign funding, and provided examples of its work fact-checking claims and information associated with actors across the political spectrum.

EuroMed Rights calls for due process, transparency, and respect for journalists’ rights, including the right to carry out legitimate journalistic work without intimidation or arbitrary interference. Any allegations against journalists should be substantiated through transparent and fair legal procedures, with full respect for their rights and fundamental freedoms.

We join +54 civil society organizations and independent media outlets in calling for the immediate release of six journalists from Egyptian investigative journalism platform Matsadaash, who were arrested in raids on their homes between September 28 and 29.

Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emeira, Abdallah Qadry, Islam Barakat, Omar Helal, Mohamed Mahmoud, and Mohamed Adel reportedly remain in custody, with their whereabouts and the reasons for their arrests still unknown.

The arrests of the entire Matsadaash newsroom represent an alarming escalation in the crackdown on independent journalism and freedom of expression in Egypt.

Journalism is not a crime. Independent media must be protected, not silenced.

As human rights experts raise serious concerns about the growing use of migration externalisation, the EU is heading in the wrong direction.

The European Commission’s 5-point plan to “prevent, anticipate and respond to sudden, mass ‘illegal’ arrivals” - presented yesterday - places a disproportionate focus on returns, cooperation with non-EU countries and border management, including through Frontex.

Ahead of tomorrow’s Justice and Home Affairs Council, the EU must not build its migration and asylum policies around externalisation and returns, and instead prioritise safe pathways, access to international protection, independent monitoring and accountability at Europe’s borders.

Yesterday at , EuroMed Rights, FIDH and ASF together with Palestinian human rights defenders highlighted the worsening situation in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

We called on Switzerland to convene the Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, as requested by the UN General Assembly in 2024. States must act to protect Palestinian civilians and uphold international law.

🚨 GOOD NEWS: Tuğba Kahraman is free! EuroMed Rights attended her hearing in Ankara today. We remain committed to supporting human rights defenders and civil society in & accros the region.

Tomorrow, 29 September, four human rights defenders—including İnsan Hakları Derneği - Human Rights Association ( IHD) Executive Member, Tuğba Kahraman, alongside youth commission members Hale Nur Çetin, Mert Ahmet Aldemir, and Şevin Özden—stand trial before the Ankara 4th High Criminal Court.