Research & projects

The FRA engages in legal and social science research to pinpoint practices within the EU that show promise in their adherence, promotion and respect for fundamental rights and to identify areas where there remains work to be done to meet internationally accepted standards.

These standards are found in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which sets forth a binding list of rights for the EU and its Member States when interpreting and applying EU law. Reference is also made to treaties and other instruments of the Council of Europe and the United Nations.

To ensure the comparability of findings, FRA research typically covers all EU Member States. Comparable data are crucial to portraying comprehensively the situation on the ground. The FRA may, however, limit its work to selected EU Member States when, for example: a topic is not relevant to all EU Member States; it is testing a new research questionnaire; or resources are limited.

Projects

Latest projects View all projects

Status: 
Ongoing

Children and justice

The project looks at the treatment of children in the justice systems of the European Union (EU), which is an important issue of concern for EU institutions and Member States.
Status: 
Ongoing

Children with disabilities: targeted violence and hostility

This project will look at hostility, including violence, towards children with disabilities across the EU. It seeks to identify the legal and policy framework, as well as determine how information about such hostility is being collected. In addition, the project will look for examples of promising practices of how some Member States are addressing the problem.
Status: 
Findings available

Roma multi-annual programme

Despite efforts at the national, European and international level to improve the social and economic integration of Roma in the European Union, many still face deep poverty, profound social exclusion, and discrimination, which often means limited access to quality education, jobs and services, low income levels, sub-standard housing conditions, poor health and lower life expectancy. These problems also present often insurmountable barriers to exercising their fundamental rights.