The authorities took decisions which increased the risk of COVID-19 infection for older people in care homes leading to preventable deaths. Refugees’ and migrants’ access to Italian territory was limited and their rights were restricted during lockdown. Co-operation with Libyan authorities on...

In the space of two weeks, two major shipwrecks claimed well over 100 lives in the Mediterranean. Amnesty International is concerned that both these tragic events represent the foreseeable outcome of legislation, policies and practices introduced by successive Italian governments that have...

In the central Mediterranean, over 2000 people lost their lives in 2022 while engaging in irregular sea crossings to seek international protection or better lives in Europe. In December 2022, the Italian government adopted two measures affecting NGO ships that patrol the central Mediterranean and...

After a long-running legal battle, on 22 July 2022, Mohamed Dihani, human rights defender and activist in defence of the rights of the Sahrawi people, was eventually able to enter the Italian territory to apply for international protection. Mohamed Dihani has long been a victim of serious human...

The briefing details how health and care workers in Italy who raised legitimate concerns about poor and unsafe working conditions in care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic were subjected to unfair disciplinary proceedings and feared recriminations from their employers. Staff working in residential...

Since the end of 2016, Italy, along with other EU countries and with the backing of EU institutions, has created a hostile environment for human rights defenders and civil society organizations conducting rescue missions at sea, with the aim to reduce the number of people reaching Europe in search...

In response to the questionnaire of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants on “pushback practices and their impact on the human rights of migrants”, this document provides Amnesty International’s input on select patterns of pushbacks of migrants and refugees in Europe with a...

In the first half of 2020, Maltese authorities were implicated in multiple failures to respect and protect the rights of refugees and migrants at sea. These human rights violations are part and parcel of a wider EU regional strategy which traps refugees and migrants in Libya. This report describes...

Health and essential workers have played an extraordinary role in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Across countries, they have put their health and wellbeing at risk, often in very difficult circumstances and with very little support, to ensure that people are able to access 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...

The UN Human Rights Council adopted the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review of Italy on 12 March 2020 during its 43rd session. This is Amnesty International’s statement on the outcome prior to the adoption of the report of the review. The statement was not delivered in the session as the...

These submissions are presented on behalf of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The submissions address: (A) the existence of Italy’s jurisdiction under Article 1 European Convention on Human Rights (“ECHR”), as a result of its decisive influence over Libya’s migration policy and...

On 11 November 2019, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch submitted a joint third-party intervention to the European Court of Human Rights in a case involving Libya’s abuses against migrants during operations at sea and upon return to the country in November 2017. Paste this URL into the...