Human rights in Greece are observed by various organizations. The country is a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the United Nations Convention Against Torture. The Greek constitution also guarantees fundamental human rights to all Greek citizens.

Current issues

Police brutality

Excessive use for force, torture and other ill-treatment by police officers and other law enforcement officials has been reported.^[1][2] Reports of such actions against people during arrest and imprisonment has increased in the end of 2019, including against journalists and students demonstrating against the abolition of a law restricting officers from accessing university campuses. Arbitrary strip-searches have been documented in a variety of cases as part of the ill-treatment. There were significant suspicions that these frequent events were not rare and were not immune to the omnipresent atmosphere of impunity for such behavior.^[3][1]

Conscientious objection

In 2020, Amnesty International reported that a continuation of "serious violations" of the rights of conscientious objectors occurred resulting in arrests, prosecutions, fines, trials in military courts, repeated punishment and suspended prison sentences. The replacement service is also much longer than the military service and is therefore regarded as a punishment for prisoners of conscience.^[4]

Migrant pushbacks

Amnesty International

According to Amnesty International's 2007 report on Greece, there are problems in the following areas:

• Treatment of migrants and refugees by the Greek police.
• Treatment of conscientious objectors to military service.
• Failure to grant necessary protection to women victims of domestic violence or trafficking and forced prostitution.
• The report also highlights cases involving arbitrary arrests in the context of the 'war on terror' and Greece's conviction by the European Court of Human Rights for violating Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights by convicting an unofficial mufti for 'usurping the function of a minister of a "known religion"'.^[5]

US State Department

The US Department of State's 2007 report on human rights in Greece identified the following issues:

• Cases of abuse by security forces, particularly of illegal immigrants and Roma.
• Overcrowding and harsh conditions in some prisons.
• Detention of undocumented migrants in squalid conditions.
• Restrictions and administrative obstacles faced by members of non‑Orthodox religions.
• Detention and deportation of unaccompanied or separated immigrant minors, including asylum seekers.
• Limits on the ability of ethnic minority groups to self-identify, and discrimination against and social exclusion of ethnic minorities, particularly Roma.

International rankings

• Democracy Index, 2020: 39 out of 167.
• Worldwide Press Freedom Index, 2020: 65 out of 180.^[6]
• Worldwide Privacy Index, 2006: 1 out of 26.
• Worldwide Quality-of-life Index, 2005:^[7] 22 out of 111.