Opening Remarks by Christina Meinecke, OHCHR Representative to the European Union on 9 November 2026, in Brussels.

Convened by OHCHR, HRDs Protection CoP for Europe, with the Permanent Representation of Germany to the European Union, IHR Advisors, and in cooperation with the civil society Europe TNR Working Group

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Good afternoon,

It is a pleasure to welcome you to today's meeting and to see so many colleagues and partners joining us to discuss a growing but still significant protection challenge: transnational repression, including through the misuse of international policing mechanisms.

While not a new phenomenon, transnational repression has become increasingly widespread and systematic, relying on an expanding toolkit of physical, legal and digital coercion. As the High Commissioner has repeatedly highlighted, States are increasingly seeking to silence, intimidate and punish critical voices beyond their borders.

Our work and reporting on civic space highlight the scale of this challenge and make clear that exile does not necessarily mean safety: human rights defenders, journalists and other critical voices can remain exposed to threats and reprisals long after leaving their countries.

For OHCHR, addressing transnational repression is an integral part of our broader efforts to strengthen protection for human rights defenders, journalists and others exercising their fundamental freedoms. The figures remain deeply concerning: our 2026 civic-space trends brief reports that at least 5,995 human rights defenders, trade unionists and journalists were reportedly killed or disappeared between 2015 and 2025.

Over the past years, OHCHR has worked to bring transnational repression more firmly onto the international human rights agenda. This includes our 2025 thematic briefer, which sought to clarify its manifestations and human rights implications in the absence of a universally agreed definition, as well as our engagement with Human Rights Council processes, UN Special Procedures and treaty bodies.

Encouragingly, international recognition and engagement are growing. In September, UN human rights experts issued a landmark Joint Declaration calling on States to prevent transnational repression, protect those at risk, uphold non-refoulement, ensure accountability and provide effective remedies.

The Human Rights Council has also expressed grave concern, most recently in a resolution on freedom of expression adopted in July this year, while G7 States, including EU Member States, have demonstrated political commitment through a joint declaration adopted last year.

At regional level, we also welcome growing political attention and collaboration among institutional and civil society partners.

These developments point to an increasingly recognised need for coordinated action across different actors and sectors.

OHCHR actively supports these efforts through our work in Geneva, Brussels and our field presences worldwide, leveraging our normative, monitoring and advocacy roles while helping translate recognition of the problem into concrete commitments and partnerships.

It is in this spirit that we have partnered with the Representation of Germany to the EU, International Human Rights Advisors and civil society partners of the Tackling TNR Europe Working Group to convene today's meeting.

This meeting is part of our continued engagement on transnational repression and the misuse of international cooperation mechanisms.

Over the past year, we have sought to advance this work through a series of discussions and exchanges with EU institutions, Member States and civil society, including through a high-level event and a workshop organised with the European Parliament and the European External Action Service last year; an expert meeting held in June this year; and un upcoming event on financial transnational repression which we are co-organising again with Germany and with civil society partners of the European Center for Not for Profit Law this coming Thursday – which you are also very welcome to attend, if of interest.

This work has also been pursued through the Human Rights Defenders Protection Community of Practice for Europe, launched by OHCHR earlier this year to strengthen cooperation around evolving protection needs, including those of relocated defenders and diaspora activists targeted by transnational repression.

With these efforts, our ambition is to move beyond mapping challenges and reiterating recommendations towards identifying practical opportunities for collaboration.

Today's discussions focus on the misuse of INTERPOL mechanisms, including Red Notices and diffusions, to pursue individuals for politically motivated purposes. As recognised in our briefer and by UN independent experts, such abuses are a powerful tool of transnational repression. They can expose individuals to arbitrary arrest, detention and extradition, restrict their freedom of movement and perpetuate intimidation across borders.

The primary responsibility to prevent and respond to such misuse rests with States. As our briefer recommends, this includes applying additional scrutiny to Red Notices and diffusions, ensuring that related action and extradition procedures comply with international human rights and refugee law, including fair trial guarantees and the prohibition of refoulement, and taking TNR risks into account in security cooperation agreements, extradition treaties and information-sharing arrangements.

At the same time, effective responses also require the engagement of the wider international community and non-State actors, including civil society, businesses and international organizations, particularly in strengthening protection and accountability.

Let me therefore also take the opportunity to thank our colleagues from INTERPOL for joining us today and for their continued engagement with OHCHR. We value the exchanges we have had on these issues and welcome the opportunity to continue this dialogue.

Ultimately, as mentioned before, we need to move from mapping of challenges to translate shared concerns and commitments into more effective, coordinated responses, building trust and stronger connections between victims and diaspora communities, civil society, States, international institutions and practitioners.

We hope today's discussions will help us take some concrete steps in that direction.

Thank you, and I wish you all a very fruitful discussion.