Source: Amnesty International –
Visa systems in Europe’s Schengen area function like an obstacle course for human rights defenders from different parts of the world, preventing many from participating in key decision-making forums. These obstacles contradict the rights and values that Schengen states claim to uphold, Amnesty International said in a new report today.
Closing the door? How visa policies in Europe’s Schengen area fail human rights defenders, documents the many obstacles that activists from 104 visa-restricted countries –mainly in Africa, Asia and the Middle East– face when trying to access short-term visas to travel to the area for advocacy, networking, or respite from the risks they face because of their work.
These human rights defenders (HRDs) are mostly racialized as Black, Asian and/or Muslim, and the negative impact on their mobility amounts to indirect discrimination, according to the organization’s analysis.
“The inability to access Schengen visas means that the voices and testimonies of human rights defenders from countries in the Global South are excluded from forums where decisions that deeply affect their lives are made,” Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns at Amnesty International.
“While Schengen states are entitled to decide who enters their territory, the impact of their visa systems on human rights defenders from 104 countries represents a clear disconnect between what they have committed to, through their guidelines and other commitments to protect human rights defenders, and what they actually do.”
The inability to access Schengen visas means that the voices and testimonies of human rights defenders from countries in the Global South are excluded from forums where decisions that deeply affect their lives are made
Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns at Amnesty International.
“Ensuring that HRDs have access to short-stay Schengen visas in a reliable, predictable, transparent, and timely manner is indispensable to realize their right to defend rights without discrimination.”