FRA’s Fundamental Rights Report 2021 reviews major developments in the field in 2020, identifying both achievements and areas of concern. It also presents FRA’s opinions on these developments, including a synopsis of the evidence supporting these opinions. This year’s focus chapter explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on fundamental rights. The remaining chapters cover: the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights; equality and non-discrimination; racism, xenophobia and related intolerance; Roma equality and inclusion; asylum, borders and migration; information society, privacy and data protection; rights of the child; access to justice; and the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
This focus looks at COVID-19’s impact on fundamental rights. It underscores that a human rights-based approach to tackling the pandemic requires balanced measures that are based on law, necessary, temporary and proportional. It also requires addressing the pandemic’s socio-economic impact, protecting the vulnerable and fighting racism.
Ce «Focus» porte sur l’impact de la COVID 19 sur les droits fondamentaux. Il souligne qu’une approche de la lutte contre la pandémie fondée sur les droits de l’homme nécessite des mesures équilibrées fondées sur le droit, nécessaires, temporaires et proportionnées. Elle nécessite également de lutter contre les conséquences socio-économiques de la pandémie, de protéger les personnes vulnérables et de combattre le racisme.
This paper presents statistical survey data for the EU on how often people are stopped by the police, in what kind of situations they are stopped, the action taken by the police during stops, and views on whether or not the police acted respectfully.
This opinion illustrates the extent and nature of lived experiences of inequality and discrimination across the EU. It does so with reference to the grounds of discrimination and areas of life covered by the racial and employment equality directives, as well as in relation to the grounds and areas covered by the proposed Equal Treatment Directive.
This report looks at the practical implementation of the presumption of innocence in criminal proceedings, and related rights, in 9 EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Portugal). Article 48 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights guarantees the presumption of innocence – but, as FRA’s research underscores, it can be undermined in many ways.
This note outlines how to help ensure a dignified stay for third-country nationals who are apprehended or intercepted at external borders. Specifically, FRA identifies twelve points for protection-sensitive and fundamental rights-compliant planning and design of initial-reception facilities at such borders. These are based on the agency’s work at external borders, including data collection and research activities.
It’s said you have the right to have fundamental human rights. FRA’s Gabriel Toggenburg explains his firm belief in the EU justice system to protect those basic freedoms. For Gabriel, a person’s identity does not necessarily come from their nationality. He tells how being born in Germany with family roots and connections in Italy, France, the UK, Switzerland and Russia shaped those views.
This is the second main report from FRA’s Fundamental Rights Survey, which collected data from 35,000 people on a range of issues. This report focuses on respondents’ experiences as victims of selected types of crime, including violence, harassment, and property crime. The report also examines how often these crimes are reported to the police, and presents further details relating to harassment and violence, such as the perpetrators and where the incidents took place.
An equal society is a better society for everyone. FRA’s Ursula Till-Tentschert warns against sidelining women — once empowered, there is nothing they cannot do. Ursula remembers the injustice of having to sew at school while her brothers carved models from wood. It is only a short step from classroom discrimination to outright prejudice. She celebrates the EU laws that protect us. But she says they will only truly work if we also smash the invisible social barriers to empowerment.
FRA’s report on artificial intelligence and fundamental rights presents concrete examples of how companies and public administrations in the EU are using, or trying to use, AI. This summary presents the main insights from the report. These can inform EU and national policymaking efforts to regulate the use of AI tools in compliance with human and fundamental rights.
Le rapport de la FRA consacré à l’intelligence artificielle et aux droits fondamentaux présente des exemples concrets de la manière dont les entreprises et les administrations publiques de l’UE utilisent ou tentent d’utiliser l’IA.
Minorities across Europe routinely experience discrimination. As a child, FRA Director Michael O’Flaherty saw first-hand how prejudice led to violence and hatred in his native Ireland. Michael shares some early experiences of violence against Irish Travellers. He also speaks about what motivates him to fight to protect human rights for people everywhere.
The European Convention on Human Rights and European Union law provide an increasingly important framework for the protection of the rights of foreigners. European Union legislation relating to asylum, borders and immigration is developing fast. There is an impressive body of case law by the European Court of Human Rights relating in particular to Articles 3, 5, 8 and 13 of the ECHR. The Court of Justice of the European Union is increasingly asked to pronounce on the interpretation of European Union law provisions in this field. The third edition of this handbook, updated up to July 2020, presents this European Union legislation and the body of case law by the two European courts in an accessible way.
The EU is founded on the values of democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights. Yet these values, and discussions on fundamental rights at the EU and Member State level, can seem remote in people’s daily lives. With this in mind, FRA explored what people understand, know and experience with respect to their fundamental rights in practice. The resulting data provide comprehensive and comparable evidence on these aspects.
Artificial intelligence (AI) already plays a role in deciding what unemployment benefits someone gets, where a burglary is likely to take place, whether someone is at risk of cancer, or who sees that catchy advertisement for low mortgage rates. Its use keeps growing, presenting seemingly endless possibilities. But we need to make sure to fully uphold fundamental rights standards when using AI. This report presents concrete examples of how companies and public administrations in the EU are using, or trying to use, AI. It focuses on four core areas – social benefits, predictive policing, health services and targeted advertising.
This report looks at fundamental rights compliance at the European Union (EU)’s external land borders, including rivers and lakes. On 30 January 2020, the European Parliament requested the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) to prepare a report on these borders. It noted that the report should focus on the correct application of the safeguards in the European asylum acquis and the provisions of the Schengen Borders Code (Regulation (EU) 2016/399).
This report outlines some of the measures EU Member States have put in place to protect public health as Europe faces the ‘second wave’ of the Coronavirus pandemic. It highlights how these may affect fundamental rights, especially social rights.
The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights has been regularly collecting data on asylum and migration since September 2015. This report focuses on the fundamental rights situation of people arriving in Member States and EU candidate countries particularly affected by migration. It addresses fundamental rights concerns between 1 July and 30 September 2020.
The EU Fundamental Rights Agency published in 2019 its report on the ‘Integration of young refugees in the EU’. The report explored the challenges of young people who fled armed conflict or persecution and arrived in the EU in 2015 and 2016. The report is based on 426 interviews with experts working in the area of asylum and integration, as well as 163 interviews with young people, aged 16 to 24, conducted between October 2017 and June 2018 in 15 regions and cities located in six Member States: Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Sweden. The links on this page provide a summary of the information collected during this period for each country about unaccompanied children turning 18 and the change in people’s legal status once international protection is granted. These two issues had at the time been identified as moments requiring sufficient, consistent and systematic support, particularly from lawyers, social workers and guardians, to ensure successful integration.
