Our Legal Associate Amanda D. Brown, a doctoral researcher at SOAS University of London, joined the expert panel on Human Rights at Sea: Contemporary Challenges, co-hosted by the Hellenic Branch of the International Law Association and the Athens Public International Law Center (Athens PIL).
Amanda spoke about the challenges of documenting human rights violations at sea, with a specific focus on Greece’s systematic practice of expelling asylum seekers into Turkish waters. Summary and collective expulsions, like these ‘pushback’ and ‘driftback’ operations, are explicitly prohibited under international and European law, and they also implicate numerous other human rights: the right to life, the rights to protection from torture and inhumane treatment, the right to seek international protection, and many more. Greece’s systematic practice of pushbacks across its land and sea borders has been reported for decades, which the European Court of Human Rights now recognized in January 2025.
She highlighted one of the most significant obstacles: state obstruction, destruction, and confiscation of evidence. Greek authorities have long been reported to systematically prevent asylum seekers from documenting their pushbacks by seizing or destroying their phones, making it nearly impossible for survivors to retain audiovisual evidence. By design, pushback operations also leave no paper trail, allowing the government to later deny the individual's presence in Greece. Meanwhile, human rights monitors are no longer active in the Aegean Sea, after years of escalating restrictions against civil society organizations and journalists. With no independent witnesses allowed near the scene of the crime, the Greek government continues to dismiss the allegations of these human rights violations, further limiting access to justice for pushback victims.
“𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘯-𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘢,” 𝘈𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥. “𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘦, 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.”
The panel also featured expert insights from Professor Efthymios Papastavridis, Professor Sofia Galani, Dr Aphrodite Papachristodoulou, and Dr Maria-Louiza Deftou, with moderator Professor Maria Gavouneli. All the panelists are members of BlueRights, an EU COST Action research network focused on the emerging legal field of human rights at sea.
To learn more about human rights at sea, follow BlueRights on LinkedIn and stay tuned for more updates from our team at the UCLA Law The Promise Institute Europe.
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