Council of Europe

Ceuta, a Spanish city on the North African coast with a population of approximately 80,000, experienced an unprecedented mass influx of people during the last week of July. Around 70,000 people, mostly Moroccan nationals but also persons from other countries, entered the territory irregularly. Although the precise causes remain uncertain, the immediate trigger appears to…

In May 2025, the infamous “letter of the nine” was published. In it, the governments of nine European states laid out their vision of various anti-migrant policies and called for “a new and open minded [sic.] conversation about the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights”. The case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR),…

There is a striking hidden controversy at the heart of the recent Chișinău Declaration issued by the members of the Council of Europe on May 15, 2026. All 46 member states have adopted a coordinated demand, asking that the European Court of Human Rights (the Court, the ECtHR) in particular to narrow their interpretation of Article 3 (the…

On 15 May 2026, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE), meeting at ministerial level in Chişinău (Republic of Moldova), adopted a declaration in which the European Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’) was called upon to recalibrate the standard of human rights protection in the field of migration policy. Much has been written…