Reports of unlawful use of force in policing demonstrations continued. Survivors of a shipwreck in which over 600 people died blamed Greek authorities for the incident. Human rights defenders continue to be criminalized for their work in support of refugees and migrants. An investigation by the Greek Data Protection Authority found that 88 people had been targeted with Predator spyware. Violations of the rights of conscientious objectors continued. Destructive wildfires caused loss of life and natural habitat amid concerns over the failure of firefighting systems.
Excessive Use of Force
There have been ongoing reports of unlawful use of force in police operations, including policing demonstrations such as the protests following the Tempe train crash in February.
In June, a court in the capital, Athens, found a police officer guilty of “misdemeanor” torture for beating a student during a COVID-19 test in Nea Smirni Square in March 2021. A second police officer was found guilty as an accomplice.
In November, an appeals court found police liable for the life-threatening injuries sustained by psychologist Yannis Kavkas during protests in Athens in 2011 and ordered them to pay compensation.
Right to life
In September, Kostas Manioutakis died after allegedly being abused by police during a police stop in the Cretan village of Vryses.
In October, prosecutors proposed charging police officers with intentional homicide and unlawful firing of a weapon in connection with the 2022 shooting death of 16-year-old Roma man Kostas Frangoulis in the city of Thessaloniki.
In November, 17-year-old Christos Michalopoulos was shot and killed by police officers in Leontari, Ariartos, after a car chase. The officers were charged with attempted murder and unlawful discharge of a firearm.
Refugee and migrant rights
Human rights violations continue at the Greek border, including illegal summary deportations, in some cases involving violence.
On June 14, a boat carrying an estimated 750 people, including many children, sank off the coast of Pylos, hours after it was first spotted by an aircraft from the EU border and coast guard agency Frontex. Only 104 people survived. Survivors have consistently told Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) that the Greek coast guard tried to tow the boat with a rope, causing it to turn and capsize. Independent reports by reputable NGOs and media have described similar events, but this story has been strongly denied by the Greek authorities.1 Amnesty International and HRW also documented serious failures by the Greek authorities in the rescue operation, and further noted that a subsequent investigation opened by the Greek authorities into the coast guard’s actions had made little progress and that the authorities may have compromised the integrity of key evidence. In November, the Greek Ombudsman opened an investigation into the coast guard’s actions, citing its refusal to conduct an internal disciplinary investigation. In July, the EU Ombudsman announced that it would investigate Frontex’s role in search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean, including the sinking of the Pylos. The incident highlights the desperate need for safe and legal migration routes to Europe.
Since July, the number of refugees and migrants arriving by sea has increased, bringing the total number of arrivals this year to more than 41,000, a significant decrease from less than 13,000 in 2022. This has exacerbated already difficult living conditions in reception facilities on the islands, such as the “Closed Controlled Access Centre” (CCAC) on the island of Samos, where authorities have imposed a de facto detention regime on new arrivals. In January, the European Commission opened an infringement case regarding Greece’s non-compliance with EU law on asylum and migration. This concerned obstacles to refugees’ access to social protection and the practice, introduced in national law in 2022, of depriving people of their liberty for up to 25 days during reception and identification procedures. In July, the EU Ombudsman opened an investigation into how the Commission ensures compliance with fundamental rights in the context of its support to CCACs.
In October, the European Court of Human Rights criticised Greece for failing to provide adequate medical care to HIV-positive asylum seekers in two reception centres.
The wildfires in the Evros region (see “The right to a healthy environment” below) have fuelled racist rhetoric and abuse against migrants and refugees.
Legal changes passed in December allow undocumented migrants who have been in Greece for at least three years and have a job offer as of the end of November 2023 to apply for a three-year residence permit. The changes also reduce the waiting period before asylum seekers can start working from six months to 60 days after submitting their asylum application.
Human rights defender
Human rights defenders continue to be criminalized for their work with refugees and migrants. The misdemeanor charges against Sarah Mardini and Sean Binder were dropped by the Supreme Court in August, but the following month they and 22 other defendants were indicted on four felony counts, including forming and joining a criminal organization and aiding illegal immigration.
Concerns remain about the ongoing criminal charges brought against Panayote Dimitras, spokesperson for the NGO Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM), and Tommy Olsen, director of the NGO Aegean Boat Report, for their work helping refugees and migrants at the Greek border and reporting on border violence and illegal returns. In January, authorities imposed restrictions on Panayote Dimitras, but his ban on GHM was lifted in May. NGOs are also concerned about the smear campaign and judicial harassment against Panayote Dimitras.
Your privacy rights
In July, the Greek Data Protection Authority conducted an investigation into the use of Predator spyware, tracing 350 SMS messages attempting to install surveillance software and notifying 88 individuals that their mobile phones had been targeted.
In September, civil society organisations and members of the European Parliament expressed concern over the Greek Parliament’s sudden replacement of several members of the Hellenic Agency for Communications Security and Privacy (ADAE) at a crucial time for the investigation into the spyware scandal.
At a European Parliament committee hearing in October, the head of ADAE expressed concern that while current and former ADAE officials have been the subject of criminal investigations, no one has ever been prosecuted for using spyware.
Rights of people with disabilities
In September, the ferry’s captain and three crew members were charged with involvement in the drowning of ferry passenger Antonis Kargiotis after one of the crew members was recorded making racist remarks towards him. Disability rights activists called on authorities to investigate the possibility of a hate motive behind the incident, given the victim’s reported health condition.
LGBTI rights
This year, derogatory and harmful rhetoric against LGBTI people in politics and the media has raised concerns.
The Racist Violence Documentation Network reported in April that there had been 38 hate crimes targeting LGBTI people or those defending their rights in 2022.
Freedom of Expression
In April, it was reported that in December 2022, a court had partially accepted a civil lawsuit against journalist Stavroura Poulimeni and the independent media cooperative Artertes, ordering the media to pay €3,000 in damages to a senior executive of a gold mining company. An appeal was filed against the ruling. The lawsuit, which has the characteristics of a strategic public participation lawsuit (SLAPP), was launched for alleged breaches of data protection law after Stavroura Poulimeni reported that the executive had been found guilty at first instance for environmental damage.
Women’s Rights
There were 14 reported cases of femicide between January and early December.In a November report, the Group of Experts monitoring the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) expressed deep concern that the 2021 “joint custody” law lacks sufficient safeguards to ensure that domestic violence cases are taken into account in determining child custody and visitation rights.
Prosecutors proposed in October to indict two police officers and a third officer as an accomplice in the gang rape of a young woman in October 2022 at Omonia police station in Athens.
The right of conscientious objectors
Conscientious objectors continued to be arrested and repeatedly punished through fines and trials in military courts. According to information published in 2023, 67 percent of applications for conscientious objector status for non-religious reasons were rejected in 2022. Some of these discriminatory rejections were overturned by the Supreme Administrative Court, but others were pending in court at year’s end.
Greece has still not implemented the 2021 UN Human Rights Committee decision in the case of conscientious objector Lazarus Petromeridis, which found multiple violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Right to health
In September, the Council of Europe’s European Committee on Social Rights deemed admissible a collective complaint filed by Amnesty International, which alleged that the Greek government had violated the European Social Charter’s provisions on the right to health and anti-discrimination due to the impact on the health system of austerity measures introduced after the 2009-2010 financial crisis.
This year, health care worker unions reported significant challenges, including chronic understaffing and funding.
The right to a healthy environment
Despite reported progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, most of Greece’s energy use remains from fossil fuels. In December, three environmental groups called on the European Commission to hold Greece to account for its systematic “permit-less” approval of oil and gas drilling off its coasts.
Human-induced climate change has been found to increase the likelihood and intensity of extreme heat and floods in Greece. Between July and September, destructive wildfires and floods were confirmed to have killed at least 38 people and destroyed natural habitats, thousands of animal lives, and human livelihoods. The wildfire in the Evros region was the largest ever recorded in the EU, killing at least 20 people, believed to be refugees or migrants.2 In response to the devastating wildfires, the World Wildlife Fund expressed concern over the failure of the country’s firefighting system and called on authorities to make radical reforms to protect forests.
“Greece: Six months after the sinking of the Pylos, no justice” December 14 “Greece: Dead in Evros mountain fire are victims of ‘two great injustices of our time'” August 23
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