Unterstützung von Menschenrechtssystemen und -verteidigern
Highlights
- Report / Paper / Summary12Dezember2025As the EU prepares to join the European Convention Human Rights (ECHR), this report outlines the main changes that accession would bring, offering an overview of the legal and operational implications. Presented in a Q&A format, it provides answers to 19 key questions for legal professionals and a broader audience. It describes the steps needed to conclude accession, the expected benefits for protecting rights, and some of the challenges that may come up. This legal analysis contributes to the current discussions on EU accession.
- Report / Paper / Summary8Dezember2025This report examines how human rights impact assessments (HRIAs) are built into lawmaking across the EU and its Member States. It highlights that, although progress has been made, the use of HRIAs remains uneven and often superficial. In many EU countries, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is frequently overlooked. The report identifies insufficient consultation with external experts, limited stakeholder participation and a lack of evaluation once laws are in force. To address these gaps, it offers practical recommendations for more systematic, inclusive and evidence-based HRIAs that strengthen human rights protection and ensure better, more accountable legislation throughout the EU.
- Report / Paper / Summary11Juli2023Across the world, human rights defenders protect and uphold human rights in some of the most challenging situations. In some countries they face worrying levels of threats and attacks, intimidation and harassment. This report outlines how human rights defenders can enter and stay in the EU when they need protection. It suggests how EU institutions and Member States could use the flexibility in existing legal provisions and provide shelter for defenders who seek protection.
- Report / Paper / Summary19Dezember2023All EU funds must be spent in a way that respect fundamental rights. The EU spends billions of euros on creating jobs, economic growth, sustainable development and improving people’s lives. To prevent funds from being spent in ways that directly violate people’s fundamental rights, the EU strengthened the conditions how funds can be spent in 2021. This report looks at how the newly introduced conditions related to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities can be upheld in practice. It analyses the potential role of national human rights institutions, ombudsperson institutions and equality bodies. These safeguards can advance compliance with fundamental rights.