In 2017, we celebrated twenty years of human rights defense work.
The topic of migration and asylum remains at the heart of our actions and priorities. At the same time, European leaders refuse to implement their own human rights commitments in relation to this issue. It is not a “migration crisis” that we are experiencing, but rather a fundamental problem that the European Union and its members are handling primarily as a security issue, thus increasing populist and xenophobic reactions.
While American President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last December, in violation of international law, the rights of Palestinians and those who defend them are increasingly under attack. These developments are the latest in a series of efforts aimed at normalising the occupation by Israel, fragmenting the occupied Palestinian territories, and muzzling the Israeli and Palestinian organisations that document human rights violations in Israel/Palestine. In this regard, European policy must go beyond the mere “non-recognition” of the Israeli colonies.
Seven years after the Arab uprisings of 2011, Tunisia remains the sole country in which democracy developed. Despite a series of successes in Tunisia, economic issues and social tensions have shown how ambiguous the political situation really is.
In 2017, we also conducted many activities on Turkey. Reports, field missions, media work and a judicial observation project were our priorities with regard to this country undergoing one of the most dramatic phases in its history.
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