46 Nations Agree on New Interpretation of European Human Rights Convention for Migration

Forty-six nations in Europe and beyond agreed Friday on a new interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights in migration cases. The non-binding political declaration addresses how the convention applies to the use of deportation centers set up in third countries.

The agreement followed calls from some member states for stricter policies to address irregular migration and ease deportations. It states that nations exposed to mass arrivals can pursue new approaches including third-country return hubs and cooperation with transit countries.

The Council of Europe, which oversees the European Court of Human Rights, issued a statement after the declaration was adopted by all 46 members' foreign ministers at a meeting in Chisinau, Moldova. The statement said the declaration underlines that states have the sovereign right to control the entry and residence of foreign nationals and that it is an obligation to protect borders in compliance with the convention.

Rights groups criticized the declaration. A spokesperson for the Brussels-based rights group PICUM said governments are seeking to pressure an independent court into weakening long-established human rights protections to facilitate deportations, with the risk of deporting people where they could face torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, or lose access to life-saving medical care.

The PICUM spokesperson added that a two-tier human rights system based on migration status is an affront to the basic principle that human rights are universal. The director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office said the declaration could loosen prohibitions on torture and weaken Europe’s human rights protections for migrants.

Italy sent several dozen migrants with no permission to remain in the country to a return hub in Albania last year. The country became the first European Union member to send rejected migrants to a nation outside the EU that is neither their home country nor one they had transited.

The EU has tightened migration policies after right-wing parties gained power in some countries in 2024. Last year the leaders of nine EU countries — Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland — signed an open letter stating that the rights convention prevented them from expelling foreign criminals.

The nine countries argued that the court’s interpretation of the convention in cases concerning the expulsion of criminal foreign nationals has protected the wrong people and placed too many limits on deciding who can be expelled.

The EU migration commissioner hailed the declaration as an important step toward unified migration policy. The commissioner said it strengthens the approach to a fair and firm migration policy in Europe and that migration is a shared challenge that requires shared solutions.

After the declaration was signed, the Council’s Secretary General said the Chisinau Declaration will help to guide the work of the Council as well as that of national authorities and domestic courts. The declaration remains non-binding.