2 July 2024
UN Special Rapporteur on HRDs calls for wide dissemination and full implementation of the new guidance on EU visas
On 26 June 2024, the EU Commission issued an update to the EU Visa Code Handbook.
The update, which is to be applied immediately, could go some way to addressing the long-standing discord between the EU’s acknowledgement of the risks for human rights defenders around the world and its visa policy as it impacts upon them.
The Visa Code Handbook provides practical guidance on the implementation of the EU Visa Code, the key legal document in the collection of EU law governing visas. Prior to the recent update, there were no specific provisions for HRDs in either of these instruments, meaning that human rights defenders seeking to enter the EU have needed to follow the normal procedures of the EU Visa Code, whether in situations of immediate risk, accumulating pressure or otherwise.
The onerous nature of these procedures, as well as the realities for HRDs at risk, often present insurmountable barriers to successful applications. This leads most defenders to not even consider temporary relocation in the EU as part of their protection strategies, and often forces those at most risk to seek paths to asylum instead, especially when it is not safe or practical for them to temporarily relocate in their home regions.
In December 2023, I published a position paper outlining this situation and calling for the EU to address it, including by updating the EU Visa Code Handbook to show what can be done for defenders based on the existing provisions of the EU Visa Code. Similar calls have made by civil society, the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency, and the EU Parliament.
It is encouraging to see that these calls have been listened to. What follows are some of the most relevant updates to the Visa Code Handbook, as they relate to human rights defenders:
- Clear guidance that a visa application from a HRD legally present – but not residing – in a country outside their place of residency may be accepted by the Member State consulate the defender is applying to (p. 29)
- Clarity that HRDs can apply for visas for one member state to go to another, if the situation in their home-country was such that it would be too dangerous for them to return home at that time (p. 31-32)
- Clear guidance that consulates may be flexible when it comes to the ordinary timeframes for making visa applications when the application is coming from a HRD at risk (p. 32-33)
- Establishing that Member States may develop ‘fast-track’ procedures for submitting visa applications and that these can be used for human rights defenders at risk (p. 34)
- Clarity that Member States may decide to waive or reduce the visa fee in the case of visa applications from human rights defenders (p. 45)
- Clear guidance that human rights defenders may be granted the status of “bona fide” applicants and have the requirement to present documents regarding the purpose of their journey, accommodation and means of subsistence waived for their applications (p. 61)
- Clarity that, when assessing the risk that a visa applicant will not leave the destination country when the visa expires, consulates will take into account information from trusted civil society organisations in cases of human rights defenders (p. 77-79)
- Clarity that human rights defenders should be eligible for multi-entry visas with long validity (p. 88-89)
- Clarity that applications from human rights defenders who do not fulfil the ordinary criteria for a visa may nonetheless be granted one on the basis of humanitarian grounds, national interest, or pursuant to a Member State’s international obligations (p. 91)
- Clear guidance that HRDs at risk can make applications at the external borders of a Member State where they can show that the risk is temporary and that there is no doubt they will leave the territory when the visa expires (p. 139-140)
- Clear guidance that it may be mandatory to extend a visa for a HRD who suddenly finds themselves at serious risk after having already been granted a visa and travelled to the EU (p. 146)
It is now crucial that this document is spread widely and reaches every possible visa decision maker among the EU Member States. While the update is encouraging, it will only make a difference to human rights defenders at risk if it is implemented fully and consistently. I call on the EU institutions to ensure this is so.