Appeal to the Heads of State and Government of the European Union

In the wake of the EU mee­ting in Brussels start­ing on 9th of March, more than 150 orga­ni­sa­ti­ons across Euro­pe appeal to the Heads of Sta­te and Government.

Dear Heads of Sta­te and Government,

We are civil socie­ty orga­ni­sa­ti­ons, which are sup­port­ed, coll­ec­tively, by hundreds of thou­sands of peo­p­le across Euro­pe, working with tho­se less for­t­u­na­te to alle­via­te pover­ty, pro­vi­de essen­ti­al aid and defend people’s rights.

With xeno­pho­bic popu­lism on the rise across Euro­pe and the glo­be, this is an appeal for lea­der­ship to uphold the rights and values that have been foun­ding prin­ci­ples of the Euro­pean Uni­on for 60 years. Tog­e­ther, we need to pre­vent legi­ti­ma­te con­cerns about migra­ti­on manage­ment from being hija­cked and used to derail the Euro­pean project.

On a dai­ly basis, we wit­ness wide­spread soli­da­ri­ty with peo­p­le who are fle­e­ing bru­tal wars, per­se­cu­ti­on, human rights vio­la­ti­ons, insta­bi­li­ty, and extre­me pover­ty. Throug­hout Euro­pe and the world, we see peo­p­le wel­co­me refu­gees and migrants into their com­mu­ni­ties, open up their homes and dona­te money, mate­ri­als and time to help. Only this week, many of them tra­vel­led to Brussels to call on you to uphold your com­mit­ments to relo­ca­te asyl­um see­kers from Greece and »Bring Them Here«. We also hear peo­p­le expres­sing their con­cerns about the future, asking their govern­ments to show lea­der­ship and respond to the arri­val of lar­ge num­bers of people.

We take pri­de in the Euro­pean com­mit­ment to inter­na­tio­nal law and human rights and we look to you to fos­ter and pro­mo­te this com­mit­ment at home and abroad. Yet when incre­asing num­bers of peo­p­le in need arri­ved in the sum­mer of 2015, Euro­pe fai­led to come tog­e­ther and respond with huma­ni­ty, digni­ty, and soli­da­ri­ty.  To this day, Euro­pean nati­ons are unwil­ling to respond in in line with their obli­ga­ti­ons under inter­na­tio­nal and Euro­pean law, defaul­ting to respon­ses that keep peo­p­le far away and out of sight.

We hear you repea­ting your com­mit­ment to Euro­pean values – respect for human digni­ty, liber­ty, demo­cra­cy, equa­li­ty, the rule of law and human rights. But we expect to see them in your actions, too. Too many lea­ders have been preoc­cu­p­ied with stop­ping peo­p­le from rea­ching Euro­pe, at the risk of redu­cing access to pro­tec­tion for tho­se who need it the most.

You have the respon­si­bi­li­ty to mana­ge migra­ti­on in a fair man­ner that addres­ses the legi­ti­ma­te con­cerns of citi­zens. It must be prin­ci­pled and based on facts, not on popu­list rhe­to­ric. Strength does­n’t mean tur­ning away tho­se most in need. Strength is about show­ing a way for­ward that upholds values.

Fur­ther, if the EU and its mem­ber sta­tes want to remain cre­di­ble inter­na­tio­nal actors, they can­not expect count­ries like Tur­key, Jor­dan and Leba­non to host mil­li­ons of refu­gees, while simul­ta­neous­ly pushing migrants and refu­gees back at EU bor­ders, stran­ding thou­sands in inhu­ma­ne living con­di­ti­ons on the Greek islands, or pushing them back into an uncon­trol­led con­flict zone like Libya. Your decis­i­ons have life and death con­se­quen­ces, and if you con­ti­nue to lower stan­dards, count­ries around the glo­be will fol­low suit.

Ins­tead of coun­tering the rise of xeno­pho­bic popu­lists, Europe’s respon­se has too often been to copy their recipes. But an approach based on deter­rence and bor­der clo­sures can­not over­ri­de an effec­ti­ve long-term poli­cy. We expect sta­tes­man­ship that stands up for huma­ni­ty and digni­ty and that addres­ses people’s fears, ins­tead of fuel­ling them. We expect sus­tainable, long-term migra­ti­on poli­ci­es that gua­ran­tee respect for people’s rights rather than pushing them into dan­ger. The­se include expan­ding safe and regu­lar pathways to Euro­pe, such as huma­ni­ta­ri­an and other visas, incre­asing resett­le­ment spaces and impro­ving access to fami­ly reuni­fi­ca­ti­on sche­mes, as well as impro­ving worker mobi­li­ty across skill levels. Other glo­bal con­cerns such as con­flict and insta­bi­li­ty, pover­ty, ine­qua­li­ty and cli­ma­te chan­ge must remain at the top of the Euro­pean agenda.

You and your govern­ments must assess the impact of your poli­ci­es on the human rights and living con­di­ti­ons of women, men and child­ren on the move, as well as Europe’s long stan­ding com­mit­ment to uphold the­se rights and impro­ve the lives of peo­p­le everywhere.

On the brink of the Euro­pean Union’s 60^th anni­ver­sa­ry we ask you to show soli­da­ri­ty, respect for huma­ni­ty and digni­ty, and respon­si­bi­li­ty. We ask you to be tru­ly inspi­ring lea­ders for the future. Our com­mit­ment to the Euro­pean Union’s core values can­not fal­ter. Only a Euro­pe that real­ly stands by its values can be a strong and cre­di­ble lea­der in a world shaken by incre­asing popu­lism and so-cal­led alter­na­ti­ve facts.

Euro­pean histo­ry is full of peo­p­le who were forced to flee their homes due to war and per­se­cu­ti­on.  The work Euro­pean nati­ons have done to deve­lop and pro­tect the rights of peo­p­le over the last 70 years can­not be lost. Only a Euro­pe that defends the rights of ever­yo­ne, wit­hout excep­ti­on, is a Euro­pe we can be proud of.

Signa­to­ries

1	Fund­ación Atabal
2	A Pro­po­si­to di Altri Mon­di Onlus
3	ACAT
4	ACF
5	ACRA
6	ACT Alli­ance EU
7	Action Against Hunger
8	Action­A­id Italy
9	ADP Amici dei Popoli
10	Afri­can Media Asso­cia­ti­on Malta
11	Agir Ensem­ble pour les Droits de l’Homme
12	AI.BI. Amici dei Bambini
13	AIDOS
14	Alba­ni­an Human Rights Group (AHRG)
15	AMERA Inter­na­tio­nal
16	Amnes­ty International
17	Anna Lindh Natio­nal Net­work in Finland
18	AOI – Asso­cia­zio­ne Orga­niz­za­zio­ni Ita­lia­ne coope­ra­zio­ne e soli­da­rie­tà internazionale
19	Arsis
20	ASGi – Asso­cia­zio­ne Stu­di Giuri­di­ci Immigrazione
21	Aso­cia­ci­on en Pre­ven­ci­on y Asis­ten­cia de la Vio­len­cia APAV
22	Aso­cia­ción pro derechos huma­nos de Espa­ña (APDHE)
23	ASPEm Onlus
24	Asso­cia­ció Salut i Família
25	Asso­cia­ti­on Euro­pé­en­ne pour la Défen­se des Droits de l’Homme
26	Asso­cia­ton for Inte­gra­ti­on and Migra­ti­on (SIMI)
27	Asso­cia­zio­ne K_Alma
28	ASTI – Asso­cia­ti­on de Sou­ti­en aux Tra­vail­leurs Immigrés
29	Aus­tri­an Red Cross
30	Care Inter­na­tio­nal
31	CARITAS – Luxembourg
32	Cari­tas Europa
33	CEFA Onlus
34	CEFIS
35	CELIM
36	Cen­tar za inte­gra­ci­ju mladih
37	Cen­tro per la For­ma­zio­ne alla Soli­da­rie­tà Internazionale
38	Cer­cle de Coopération
39	CESVI
40	CIAI
41	CICSENE
42	CIES
43	CIRÉ (coor­di­na­ti­on et initia­ti­ves pour réfu­giés et étrangers)
44	CISV Onlus
45	Civic Com­mit­tee for Human Rights from Croa­tia (CCHR)
46	CLAE
47	CODE – Coor­di­na­ti­on des ONG pour les droits de l’enfant
48	COMI
49	Comi­ta­to Col­la­bo­ra­zio­ne Medi­ca CCM
50	Com­mit­tee on the Admi­nis­tra­ti­on of Jus­ti­ce (CAJ)
51	Con­cord Italia
52	CONCORD Swe­den
53	Con­se­jo de la Juventud de España
54	Con­sor­ti­um of Migrants Assis­ting Orga­niza­ti­ons in the Czech Republic
55	Con­sor­zio Ong Pie­mon­te­si COP
56	Coor­di­na­men­to Ita­lia­no NGO Internazionali
57	Cordaid
58	COSPE Onlus
59	CrEA Onlus
60	CVM Comu­ni­tà Volon­ta­ri per il Mondo
61	Danish Refu­gee Council
62	Detenti­on Action
63	Dia­co­nia – Cen­ter of Reli­ef and Development
64	DNK – Ger­man Natio­nal Com­mit­tee for Inter­na­tio­nal Youth Work
65	Doras
66	Dor­cas Aid International
67	Dutch Coun­cil for Refugees
68	Dutch League for Human Rights (DLHR)
69	EMERGENCY ONG – ONLUS
70	EU-CORD
71	Euro­Med Rights
72	Euro­pean Evan­ge­li­cal Alliance
73	Euro­pean Non-Govern­men­tal Sports Orga­ni­sa­ti­on ENGSO Youth
74	Euro­pean Youth Forum
75	Federa­ción de Aso­cia­cio­nes para la Defen­sa y Pro­mo­ción de los Derechos Huma­nos España
76	FIDH
77	Fin­nish League for Human Rights (FLHR)
78	Fin­nish Luther­an Over­se­as Mission
79	Fin­nish Refu­gee Council
80	FMSI
81	FOCSIV – Fede­ra­zio­ne Orga­nis­mi Cris­tia­ni Ser­vi­zio Inter­na­zio­na­le Volontario
82	Fon­da­zio­ne Fontana
83	Gene­ra­ti­on 2.0 for Rights ‚Equa­li­ty and Diversity
84	GVC
85	Habi­tat for Huma­ni­ty Inter­na­tio­nal, Euro­pe, Midd­le East and Africa
86	Han­di­cap International
87	Hel­le­nic League for Human Rights (HLHR)
88	Human Rights Watch
89	Inter­na­tio­nal Aid Services
90	Inter­na­tio­nal Asso­cia­ti­on For Refugees
91	Inter­na­tio­nal Reha­bi­li­ta­ti­on Coun­cil for Tor­tu­re Victims
92	Inter­na­tio­nal Res­cue Committee
93	Inter­na­tio­nal Young Natu­re­fri­ends – IYNF
94	INTERSOS
95	IPSIA
96	Isla­mic Reli­ef UK
97	JRS
98	JRS Bel­gi­um
99	KISA – Action for Equa­li­ty, Sup­port, Antiracism
100	Kopin
101	La Stra­da International
102	Lafede.cat- Federa­ció catalana
103	Latin Ame­ri­can Wome’s Rights Ser­vice (LAWRS) – UK
104	Lat­vi­an Human Rights Com­mit­tee (LHRC)
105	Le Mon­de des Pos­si­bles ASBL
106	Legam­bi­en­te
107	LIDU – Lega ita­lia­na dei Dirit­ti dell’Uomo
108	Ligue des Droits de l’homme en Bel­gi­que (LDH)
109	Ligue suis­se des droits de l’homme (LSDH)
110	Link2007 – Coope­ra­zio­ne in rete
111	LVIA
112	Mace­do­ni­an Young Lawy­ers Association
113	MANI TESE
114	Mar­che soli­da­li – coor­di­na­men­to orga­niz­za­zio­ni mar­chi­gia­ne di coope­ra­zio­ne e soli­da­rie­tà internazionale
115	Men­e­dek – Hun­ga­ri­an Asso­cia­ti­on for Migrants
116	Migrant Rights Cent­re Ireland
117	Miss­ing Child­ren Europe
118	Movi­men­to Shalom onlus
119	Naga
120	Nasc, the Irish Immi­grant Sup­port Centre
121	Nor­we­gi­an Cent­re against Racism
122	One Third Sweden
123	ONG para el Desarrollo
124	Osser­va­to­rio AIDS
125	Over­se­as
126	Oxfam
127	Pax for Peace
128	PICUM
129	Plat­form Kin­de­ren op de vlucht – Pla­te-for­me Mineurs en exil
130	Polish Hel­sin­ki Foun­da­ti­on for Human Rights
131	Polish Migra­ti­on Forum
132	Polish Socie­ty of Anti-Dis­cri­mi­na­ti­on Law (PSAL)
133	PRO ASYL
134	PRO.DO.C.S.
135	Pro­get­to­Mon­do Mlal
136	Rain­bow for Africa
137	Red Aco­ge
138	Save the Children
139	Secours Isla­mi­que France
140	SKOP – The Natio­nal Plat­form of Mal­te­se Deve­lo­p­ment NGOs
141	SONIA per un Mon­do Nuo­vo e Giusto
142	SPARK15
143	sticht­ing LOS (Natio­nal Sup­port Orga­ni­sa­ti­on for the Undocumented)
144	Sticht­ing Vluchteling
145	Swe­dish Refu­gee Advice Centre
146	Ter­ra Nuova
147	Terre des Hommes
148	The Fin­nish NGDO Plat­form to the EU Kehys
149	The Migrants’ Rights Network
150	Tró­cai­re
151	U.V.I.S.P.-ASSISI
152	United Pro­tes­tant Church in Belgium
153	Welt­hun­ger­hil­fe
154	WeWorld
155	with the sup­port of CONCORD Europe
156	World Visi­on

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