and the independent media cooperative Alterthess, ordering the media outlet to pay EUR 3,000 in damages to a gold mining company’s senior executive. An appeal was filed against the ruling. The case, bearing the hallmarks of a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP),) stemmed from an alleged breach of data protection laws after Stavroula Poulimeni reported on the executive’s conviction by a first instance court for environmental damage. WOMEN’S RIGHTS Between January and early December, there were 14 reported femicides. In its November report, the Group of Experts monitoring the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (GREVIO) expressed deep concern that the 2021 “joint custody” legislation lacked sufficient safeguards to ensure that incidents of domestic violence were taken into account in the determination of child custody and visitation rights. In October, a prosecutor proposed indicting two police officers for the group rape of a young woman at Omónia police station in Athens in October 2022, and a third police officer as an accessory. CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS’ RIGHTS Conscientious objectors continued to face arrest and repeated punishment through fines and trials by military courts. According to information published in 2023, 67% of applications for conscientious objector status invoking non-religious grounds were rejected in 2022. Some of those discriminatory rejections were annulled by the Supreme Administrative Court, while others were pending before the court at year’s end. Greece still failed to implement the 2021 UN Human Rights Committee decision concerning the case of conscientious objector Lazaros Petromelidis, which found multiple violations of the ICCPR. The State of the World’s Human Rights RIGHT TO HEALTH In September, the Council of Europe’s European Committee of Social Rights found admissible a collective complaint filed by Amnesty International. The complaint argued that the Greek government had violated provisions of the European Social Charter on the right to health and the prohibition on discrimination due to the impact on the health system of austerity measures introduced after the 2009-2010 financial crisis. During the year, heath workers’ unions reported significant challenges including persistent lack of staff and underfunding. RIGHT TO A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT Despite reported progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuels still accounted for most of Greece’s energy use. In December, three environmental organizations asked the European Commission to hold Greece accountable for systematically giving a “free pass” to oil and gas drilling off the country’s coasts. Human-induced climate change was found to increase the likelihood and intensity of extreme heat and floods in Greece. Between July and September, destructive wildfires and floods resulted in at least 38 confirmed deaths and the loss of natural habitat, the lives of thousands of animals and people’s livelihoods. The wildfire in Evros region was the largest ever recorded in the EU and killed at least 20 people thought to be refugees and migrants.2 Following the catastrophic wildfires, the World Wildlife Fund expressed concern at the failure of the national firefighting system and urged the authorities to adopt radical changes to protect forests. 1. “Greece: 6 months on, no justice for Pylos shipwreck”, 14 December 2. “Greece: Evros wildfire dead are victims of ‘two great injustices of our times’”, 23 August 185