Travel is crucial for human rights defenders (HRDs), the backbone of the human rights movement, and the Schengen area offers opportunities for human rights advocacy, networking, and for temporary respite for those facing threats and burnout.
This report brings together real-life cases showing the impact of short-stay Schengen visa obstacles on HRDs, such as the need to provide a long list of supporting documentation, difficulties in accessing diplomatic representations, and long waiting times for appointments and visa decision-making. These experiences occur within a broader context of systemic racism, a legacy of colonial practices that shape visa policies and practices to this day, and that affect HRDs who are nationals of the 104 visa-restricted countries, who are in their vast majority racialized as Black, Asian and/or Muslim.
In a welcome development, the importance of mobility for HRDs has been recognised by EU institutions and Schengen states, which, in 2024, improved the guidance aimed at facilitating their travel.
This report calls on authorities to ensure that HRDs are able to fulfil their right to defend rights, including through accessing short-term Schengen visas quickly; and to eliminate and prevent racial discrimination in the context of visa policies and processes.