Dozens of European nations sign off on new interpretation of rights convention in migration cases

BRUSSELS (AP) — Forty-six nations in Europe and beyond agreed Friday on a new interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights in migration cases, including how it applied to the controversial use of deportation centers set up in third countries.

The political declaration came after calls from some member states for stricter approaches to fight irregular migration and facilitate deportations.

Rights groups criticized the political declaration, saying it could loosen prohibitions on torture and weaken Europe’s human rights protections for migrants.

“The declaration underlines that states have the undeniable sovereign right to control the entry and residence of foreign nationals, and that it is both an obligation and a necessity for states to protect their borders in compliance with the Convention,” the Council of Europe said in a statement after the non-binding declaration was adopted all of its 46 members' foreign ministers Friday at a meeting in Chisinau, the Moldovan capital.

It said that nations “exposed to mass arrivals” can pursue new approaches to deter irregular migration including "third country 'return hubs', and cooperation with countries of transit."

The Council oversees the European Court of Human Rights, the top court that protects the continent's human rights convention.

The declaration could weaken both the court and convention, said Chiara Catelli, a spokesperson for the Brussels-based rights group PICUM.

“Governments are effectively seeking to pressure an independent Court into weakening long-established human rights protections in order to facilitate deportations, with the risk of deporting people where they could face torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, or where they would stop receiving life-saving medical care,” she said.

“A two-tier human rights system based on migration status is an affront to the basic principle that human rights are universal,” said Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office.

Italy sent several dozen migrants with no permission to remain in the country to a “return hub” in Albania last year, becoming the first European Union country to send rejected migrants to a nation outside the EU that is neither their own nor a country they had transited on their journey.

Rights campaigners have said such policies are inhumane and compare them to the deportation policies of United States President Donald Trump.

The EU has steadily tightened migration policies after right-wing parties took power in some countries in 2024.

Last year the leaders of nine European Union countries — Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland — signed an open letter claiming the rights convention prevented them from expelling foreign criminals.

The nations 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.

European Union migration commission Magnus Brunner hailed the declaration as “an important step” toward unified migration policy.

“It strengthens our approach to a fair and firm migration policy in Europe. Migration is a shared challenge that requires shared solutions,” he said.

After the declaration was signed, the Council’s Secretary General Alain Berset said the Chisinau Declaration “will help to guide our own work as well as that of national authorities and domestic courts.”

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McGrath reported from Leamington Spa, England.

Participants attend the opening session of the 135th Ministerial Session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in Chisinau, Moldova, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Elena Covalenco)

Moldova's President Maia Sandu, center, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Alain Berset, right, and Moldova's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mihai Popsoi attend the 135th Ministerial Session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in Chisinau, Moldova, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Elena Covalenco)

Participants attend the opening session of the 135th Ministerial Session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in Chisinau, Moldova, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Elena Covalenco)

Moldova's President Maia Sandu, center, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Alain Berset, right, and Moldova's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mihai Popsoi attend the 135th Ministerial Session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in Chisinau, Moldova, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Elena Covalenco)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee on Friday announced that he is ending his bid for reelection, his career upended by the redistricting battles that are sweeping the country after last month's Supreme Court decision.

Republicans in Tennessee this month enacted a new U.S. House map that carves up a Cohen's majority-Black district, reshaping it to the GOP’s advantage as part of President Donald Trump’s strategy to hold on to a slim majority in the November midterm elections.

“I don’t want to quit. I’m not a quitter. But these districts were drawn to beat me,” Cohen told reporters in his Washington, D.C. office.

Cohen is challenging the state’s redistricting effort in court and said that he would reenter the race if that lawsuit succeeded in restoring his old congressional district.

He lamented that Tennessee would likely shift to an entirely Republican congressional delegation after the next election, warning that it could also leave the state out of the loop once Democrats are able to regain the White House.

Tennessee was the first state to pass new congressional districts after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that significantly weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities. But more Southern states could follow. Republicans in Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina also have taken steps toward redistricting.

Cohen has represented his Memphis-based district for about two decades, among the last of the white Democrats representing the South. He has been a longtime member of the House Judiciary Committee and has focused on strengthening voting access and civil rights.

“It’s unique in America that an African-American majority district has elected a white guy, and that we’ve got a great relationship, great amount of support,” said Cohen, who is also the first Jewish person to represent Tennessee in Congress.

He was facing a primary challenge from state lawmaker Justin Pearson, a Black Democrat who represents Memphis in the state's General Assembly. Pearson has said he will continue his campaign in the state's newly redrawn 9th Congressional District.

But Cohen predicted that it would be nearly impossible for Tennessee Democrats to win a seat in Congress with the new districts. He added there was a chance the redistricting effort could “backfire on the Republicans” but that would require an “unbelievable registration effort among Democrats” and a massive vote turnout effort.

Sitting in his congressional office with staff looking on, Cohen pointed to photos of Memphis and local projects that he had championed during his career and expressed worry that Memphis voters would no longer have a voice in Washington. He also recounted how he had worked with the state's Republican leaders to win funding during the Biden administration for a larger bridge to cross the Mississippi River into Memphis.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement that Cohen was “a powerful champion for civil rights” and that “the City of Memphis, the Congress and the nation are better because of Steve’s commitment to making a difference.”

Cohen said that the Republican's redistricting effort was being done “for Donald Trump to get one more vote, he thinks, to stop them from being impeached.”

Still, he vowed to use his remaining time in Congress to try to mount opposition to Trump, calling the president “the greatest threat to democracy and to decorum and grace that we’ve ever seen.”

Like many lawmakers, Cohen has often attracted attention with colorful outbursts during congressional debates and hearings. During Trump’s first term, in 2019, Cohen brought a bucket of fried chicken to a House Judiciary Committee hearing at which then-Attorney General William P. Barr was a no-show.

“The message is Attorney General Bill Barr is not brave enough to answer questions from a staff attorney and members of the Judiciary Committee,” he said in a statement at the time.

Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., of Memphis, testifies before a Senate Judiciary committee during a special session of the state legislature to redraw U.S. Congressional voting maps Wednesday, May 6, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)