The League of Human Rights

Human Rights Monitoring Institute

VIA IURIS

Liberty

Society for Civil Rights

The Peace Institute – Institute for Contemporary Social and Political Studies

Bulgarian Helsinki Committee

Nederlands Juristen Comité voor de Mensenrechten

Centre for Peace Studies - Croatia

Civil Rights Defenders

Estonian Human Rights Centre

Associazione Antigone

Polish Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties

VoxPublic

The Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Romania – the Helsinki Committee

Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights

Rights International Spain

Hungarian Civil Liberties Union

Belgian League of Human Rights

In its report, the Berlin-based Civil Liberties Union for Europe said that countries such as Hungary, Poland or Slovenia had used the pandemic to strengthen their hold on power and limit criticism of the government.

A new report from the Civil Liberties Union for Europe, based in Germany, suggests that the pandemic has played an important part in weakening democracy across the continent.

“Beyond being a distraction from the task of vaccination, the pass could end up creating a two-tier society,” Israel Butler of the Civil Liberties Union for Europe, a human rights watchdog, said about the EU Commission's vaccine pass plan.

“The recommendation is a good start, but the Commission should go further and implement concrete safeguards into EU law, similar to what it intends to do as a means to counter strategic lawsuits against journalists,” Eva Simon, senior advocacy officer at the Civil Liberties Union For Europe, said in a statement.

“Real-time bidding, which is the bedrock of the online advertising industry, is an abuse of people’s right to privacy,” said Dr Orsolya Reich, senior advocacy officer at Liberties.

“People’s freedoms have been curtailed in a bid to stop the spread of the virus,” said Linda Ravo, senior advocacy consultant at the Civil Liberties Union for Europe. While some measures were necessary to protect people’s health, she said that “several governments have placed disproportionate restrictions on civic space, media freedom and democratic participation.”