Dear Taoiseach,
We are writing ahead of Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) to call on your government to use this period to protect fundamental rights and the rule of law at the EU level and effectively translate its commitments into concrete and principled external action.
Ireland assumes the Presidency at a moment of acute strain on the rules-based international order and on the EU’s credibility as a principled defender of international human rights and humanitarian law. In line with the EU’s commitment to the universal respect, protection and fulfilment of human rights, rightly identified as a core EU interest, the bloc should ensure that its responses to international crises remain consistent with its values and treaty obligations, and are neither characterized by double standards nor muted in the face of serious violations or risk thereof. While the EU continues to respond decisively to Russia’s abuses in Ukraine, the bloc has largely failed to take significant action to address atrocities in Gaza and Lebanon or to call explicitly on US or Israeli governments to respect international norms instead of openly minimizing them. Transactional and short-term diplomacy embraced by some EU leaders have undermined principled commitment to uphold rights at a time when leaders of other global powers are increasingly hostile or reluctant to respect them.
In this regard, Ireland’s long-standing and demonstrated support to multilateralism, human rights and the rule of law, puts your government in a strong position to push the EU as a whole to rise to the challenges created by global geopolitical shifts. As your government prepares to present its EU Presidency priorities, we encourage you to consider the following priority issues and recommendations.
- Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights in EU Member States
Attacks on fundamental freedoms have continued or worsened in many EU member states, including restrictions on civic space, media freedom, the rights of LGBT people, and the right to protest. The Commission’s 2025 EU Rule of Law report highlighted a generally negative trend with significant progress or full implementation of only 18 percent of its 2024 recommendations across member states. Bulgaria, Hungary, and Slovakia were among the states that failed to implement the majority of EU rule of law recommendations. In its 2025 World Report, Human Rights Watch has raised concerns over rule of law and human rights erosion in France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, and Poland.
We call on your government to support the use of the full spectrum of EU rule of law tools to keep member states accountable, and particularly EU financial conditionality, and to raise critical questions during country-specific discussions under the rule of law dialogue in the Council. In negotiations over the next Multiannual Financial Framework, we urge you to insist on incorporating rule of law conditionality into all EU funds, based on clear and public benchmarks, and to reject any compromise that weakens or makes the conditionality mechanism subject to political discretion.
Following the 2026 elections and the end of Viktor Orbán’s 16-year rule, Hungary has entered a transition period presenting both significant opportunities for democratic restoration and rule of law risks. The new government has committed to restoring judicial independence, dismantling state capture structures, implementing Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments, and reversing Hungary’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC). At the same time, it is expected to pursue rapid constitutional and institutional reforms targeting Fidesz-era structures, including politically captured oversight bodies, public-interest asset management foundations and parts of the media system.
Your Presidency will take place at a crucial time when next steps under the article 7 Treaty of the European Union (TEU) procedure on Hungary will be decided. We call on you to cooperate closely with the European Parliament as the initiator of the procedure and to ensure that scrutiny is ended only once the authorities deliver – not simply commit to – reforms, learning important lessons from the politicized termination of scrutiny on Poland. Reforms should include: complete dismantling of the Sovereignty Protection Office; restoring freedom of assembly, including for Pride-related events; implementing in full the landmark ruling of the CJEU concerning Hungary’s 2021 anti-LGBT law and all other rulings of the CJEU and ECtHR; addressing multiple concerns related to media freedom; and engaging with civil society in the reform process. Particular attention should also be paid to risks that efforts to dismantle captured institutions or remove entrenched officeholders may themselves undermine legality, due process, institutional independence, and rule of law safeguards.
- Humane, Rights-Respecting and Principled EU Migration Policy
We are gravely concerned that EU migration and asylum policies undermine fundamental rights.
The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum makes it easier for governments to rush the assessment of protection claims, limits safeguards in asylum processing, and boosts the prevalence and duration of detention. The accelerated border asylum and return procedures portend an increase in the use and the length of detention, including of families with children, and raise serious concerns about the risk of refoulement. The Crisis Regulation allows for significant derogations in vaguely defined situations of “mass influx” or “instrumentalization.”
Both the Pact and the recently-agreed Return Regulation enable EU member states to deflect their responsibilities by transferring people to designated “safe third countries” with which they have no connection and where respect for their human rights may be in doubt. Member states will also be able to set up offshore detention and deportation sites, so-called “return hubs”.
The regulation also extends the use of detention and the erosion of procedural safeguards, and foresees investigative/detection measures that could legitimize policing practices that target racialized communities and lead to US ICE-style raids that terrorize communities and discourage people from seeking healthcare, going to the police, going to school, or working.
During its Presidency of the Council, Ireland should:
- Encourage member states to mitigate the worst consequences of the Pact and the Return Regulation: limit the use of detention and border asylum procedures; refrain from establishing “safe third country” agreements and return hubs; and limit application of the Crisis Regulation to truly exceptional circumstances.
- Prioritize actions by member states to implement the positive aspects of the Pact, including the obligation to use multidisciplinary age assessments, guaranteeing access to education for child asylum seekers within two months, and ensuring access to the right to work for adults after a maximum of six months. Member states should also prioritize and implement fully provisions for identification and appropriate support of migrants and asylum seekers with specific support needs, including people with disabilities and people at heightened risk of abuse. Independent monitoring mechanisms should have broad mandates to cover all allegations of rights violations in the context of border activities.
- Human Rights in External Action and International Justice
At a time of mounting challenges and uncertainty on the global stage, the European Union can play a key role in upholding a rules-based international order and in responding to international crimes and growing attacks against international institutions and international justice mechanisms. Despite its long-standing track record of standing up for human rights globally, the EU now needs to redouble efforts to protect international norms and institutions on which human rights are based and prevent perceptions of double standards.
Russian forces have inflicted immense suffering on Ukraine’s civilians through the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other international humanitarian law violations. Attacks on civilians escalated over the past year with Russian use of explosive weapons in populated areas and short-range drones contributing to a 31 percent increase in civilian casualties compared with 2024, reaching at least 2,514 killed and 12,142 injured. In Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine, erasure of Ukrainian identity and cultural heritage, coercive “passportization”, unlawful conscription, the imposition of the Russian curriculum in education and unlawful seizure of property of Ukrainian residents may constitute international crimes.
We call on your Presidency to advocate for unequivocal support for justice for Russia’s serious violations in Ukraine, and particularly an emphasis, including in Council Conclusions, on the role of the ICC and the implementation of ICC arrest warrants as a central pathway to accountability for the litany of crimes committed. Accountability and civilian protection are at risk amid any potential negotiations, as evidenced by narrow frameworks promoted by the US in 2025.
Human Rights Watch and many other human rights groups and UN bodies have documented egregious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by Israeli authorities throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), in Lebanon, in the occupied Golan Heights, and elsewhere, including acts of genocide, forced displacement, ethnic cleansing, the use of starvation as a weapon of war, unlawful attacks on hospitals, schools, shelters, aid workers, journalists, civilians and civilian infrastructure, allegations of widespread torture, and the crimes against humanity of extermination, forced displacement, persecution and apartheid against the Palestinians.
While Ireland has been among the most vocal EU governments in denouncing Israeli crimes and recently announced a unilateral ban of trade with Israel’s illegal settlements, EU member states and institutions should do much more to comply with their obligations under the UN Genocide Convention, ICJ and ICC rulings and opinions, and other applicable international law, putting an end to the impunity and support that are fueling ongoing atrocity crimes by Israeli authorities.
In Sudan, throughout the Sahel, in eastern DR Congo or in Myanmar, civilians continue to pay the price of brutal conflict and complete impunity, met by too slow and insufficient EU policy response. Following the collapse of the Assad government in Syria, the EU has an opportunity to use its leverage to promote respect for rights for all and justice and accountability for serious international crimes.
EU’s relations with repressive global and regional powers, including China, India, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and others, often comes to the detriment of seriously addressing their appalling human rights records. The EU has similarly sidelined human rights diplomacy in its engagement with repressive governments in Egypt, Tunisia, Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Central Asia, for short-term political gains or over fears that raising concerns might compromise friendly relations with their leaders.
Responses by EU leaders and EU member states to the US’ and Israel’s intervention in the Middle East, during which attacks by all parties may amount to war crimes, have remained inconsistent and selective. The EU has also fell short of calling out US's unlawful attacks and extrajudicial executions in the Caribbean and Pacific. US sanctions against International Criminal Court officials, a UN expert, and prominent Palestinian human rights groups could severely undermine the Court’s global mandate and the critical work of human rights organizations on behalf of victims of serious crimes, one of several threats facing the international justice architecture
A renewed and updated EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy is expected to be adopted during your Presidency. A more ambitious Action Plan, equipped to respond to new challenges faced by human rights and driven towards better implementation, is an opportunity for the EU to reaffirm support to defenders around the world. It is also an opportunity to question the misuse by some member states of the unanimity rule in foreign policy decision making and blockage of principled action.
During its Presidency of the Council, Ireland should:
- Reinforce support for justice and accountability for Russia’s serious violations in Ukraine, including support for the ICC; ensure there is no amnesty for serious crimes under international law as part of any negotiation and that any peace talks address the rights and safety of civilians; ensure that the release of unlawfully detained Ukrainian civilians and children and Russian political detainees, the return of deported or forcibly transferred Ukrainian children, and the repatriation of prisoners of war, are priority issues for the EU in any future negotiations; and call for the release of Russian political prisoners prosecuted for their anti-war stance;
- Support concrete measures in response to Israeli authorities’ grave abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Lebanon and elsewhere, in compliance with the UN Genocide Convention, applicable ICJ and ICC rulings and opinions, and other international law. Measures should include the suspension of the trade pillar of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, sanctions against Israeli officials implicated in serious abuses, the adoption of an EU-wide ban of trade with illegal Israeli settlements (under art. 207 TEU), halting all exports and transit of arms to Israel, support for domestic and international efforts to bring perpetrators of serious international crimes to account, and commitment to execute all ICC arrest warrants. The EU should also encourage Lebanon ensure accountability for international crimes by ratifying the Rome Statute of the ICC;
- Strengthen the EU responses to crises in Sudan—including through the EU’s participation in the newly formed atrocity prevention and justice coalition— Myanmar, the Great Lakes and the Sahel, with a focus on protection of civilians, human rights and justice, and use its voice and leverage to secure measurable progress on human rights, justice and accountability in Syria;
- Mainstream human rights in all aspects of EU-China relations, including trade and security; raise concerns privately and publicly about severe human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong and other parts of China and hold accountable those responsible; condition EU engagement with China to concrete human rights benchmarks; pushback on retaliation laws and measures; boost EU’s support to civil society and human rights defenders; and reject China’s efforts to undermine international institutions and subvert them by introducing its own norms;
- Reinforce support for the International Criminal Court, including by mainstreaming defense of the court’s mandate and access of victims of serious international crimes to effective justice throughout EU action and increasing efforts of the EU and its member states in securing cooperation with the court; support the activation of the EU Blocking Statute and other concrete actions to mitigate or nullify the effects of any coercive measures, including sanctions, against the court, its officials, and those cooperating with it; and commit to efforts to advance the universality of the Rome Statute in particular in situations where serious international crimes are currently being committed, such as Lebanon;
- Ensure that EU’s support for human rights, rule of law and justice, as well as for human rights defenders, remains a central pillar of its relations with third countries around the world;
- Support the adoption of an ambitious EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy, along with a Council decision to implement it by qualified majority voting.
As some political leaders – including in EU countries or countries closely linked to the EU – are severing their commitments to human rights, Ireland can help ensure during its Presidency that the EU rises to meet this moment and actively defends both human rights and international law. The EU’s ability to show principled leadership depends on demonstrating consistency and commitment without double standards or selectivity to shared democratic values, both internally and in its external actions.
Cordially,
Bruno Stagno Ugarte, Chief Advocacy Officer, Human Rights Watch
