24 November 2021
In Court for Saving Lives
The trial against human right defenders Séan Binder and Sarah Mardini was supposed to start on 18 November 2021 at the criminal Court on the Greek island of Lesvos. The core charge of the prosecution, the facilitation of irregular entry of third country nationals, is based on the EU Facilitator’s Package and Greek anti-smuggling laws, both of which are at variance with international law standards related to smuggling. The remaining charges pressed upon Binder and Mardini are excessive and likely to be proved unfounded for lack of sufficient evidence. The whole process is just another example of the ongoing criminalization of humanitarian assistance to refugees and asylum seekers in Europe. Continue reading >>
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22 June 2020
Defending the Open Society against its Enemies
On 18 June 2020, in the case of Commission v Hungary (Transparency of associations), the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice held that Hungarian authorities “introduced discriminatory and unjustified restrictions on foreign donations to civil society organisations” when it adopted a new legislation on NGO in 2017. How will the Hungarian government react? Six potential scenarios can be outlined from not doing anything (scenario 1) – an unlikely option due to the threat of pecuniary sanctions – to full and good faith compliance with the judgment resulting in the total repeal of the Lex NGO (scenario 6) – equally unlikely. Between these two, four additional ones may be foreseen. Continue reading >>
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28 February 2019