Although Lithuania signed the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention) in 2013, it has not yet been ratified. Only five other EU member states have failed to do so.

Despite the extended state of alarm, the coronavirus infection rate in Spain continues to rise at an accelerating rate. On 12th March 2021, the country scored second on the list of European countries with the highest number of COVID-19 cases.

As reported previously, protests have been ongoing since October 2020 when the Constitutional Tribunal (CT) ruled to impose a near-total ban on abortion.

On 3rd November 2020, the Hungarian Government declared a state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic.

On 3rd November 2020, the Hungarian Government declared a state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic. On 10th November 2020, the Hungarian parliament passed a law authorising the government to use its emergency powers for 90 days.

EU democracies suffered extra blows during the pandemic, according to our annual report. Good news: the EU has all the tools needed to protect and promote human rights in member states.

The EU is considering new legislation which could seriously endanger free speech. More than 60 human rights and journalist organisations have written an open letter to all Members of the European Parliament urging them to reject this text.

A new Liberties report finds that authoritarian governments in the EU upped their attacks against critical journalists and citizens' groups using COVID-19 as cover. But governments in traditionally stronger democracies have also done damage.

We sent a policy brief with six problems and six solution proposals in it to the EU legislators.

See how our concerns and recommendations to the European Commission landed in the media.