Highlights

  • Report / Paper / Summary
    22
    Oktober
    2025
    This publication discusses how businesses can meet their human rights and environmental responsibilities. It focuses on key elements of mandatory human rights due diligence and presents reflections on principles from international law and EU law. The paper explains why risk-based human rights due diligence is needed and how it should be implemented. It also highlights the importance of stakeholder engagement, access to remedies, and oversight. It aims to inform EU policymakers and stakeholders about ways to effectively promote responsible business conduct and to ensure adequate protection of rightsholders.
  • Report / Paper / Summary
    11
    Juli
    2023
    Across 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 / Summary
    19
    Dezember
    2023
    All 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.
  • Periodic updates / Series
    18
    Oktober
    2023
    Civil society organisations struggle to maintain an environment safe from threats and attacks. FRA’s sixth annual update on civic space explores the challenges for organisations across the EU. While there has been significant development since FRA began monitoring the situation in 2018, civil society organisations remain under immense pressure. Abusive lawsuits and attacks against those involved in migrant search and rescue at sea are just some of the challenges identified. This report presents ways forward to protect civil society and human rights.
    Produkte
    Talk by Szczepan Orlowski of Animorph at the Human Rights Communicators' Workshop held at FRA on 3-4 October 2019.
    Talk by Flavia Kleiner of Operation Libero to the Human Rights Communicators' Workshop held at FRA on 3-4 October 2019.
    FRA Director Michael O'Flaherty gave the opening talk at the Human Rights Communicators' Workshop held at the Agency on 3-4 October 2019.
    In the latest edition of his video blog, FRA Director Michael O'Flaherty focuses on the migration situation in the Mediterranean Sea and makes three proposals.
    Fundamental Rights Report 2019: Ten years after the UN’s Disability Convention entered into force, 2018 saw it continue
    to drive advances in disability rights across the EU.
    Fundamental Rights Report 2019: The Charter of Fundamental Rights is the EU’s bill of human rights. These rights and principles have to be respected and promoted by EU institutions and Member States whenever they act within EU law. Approaching the Charter’s 10th anniversary, Member States do not yet make full use of the potential it offers.
    Fundamental Rights Report 2019: Implementing fundamental and human rights helps create a sustainable future.
    Here the EU plays a key role.
    19
    Juni
    2019
    In 2018, some 2,299 people are estimated to have died or gone missing at sea while crossing the sea to reach Europe to escape war or persecution or to pursue a better life. This is on average more than six people per day. Before mid-2017, a significant share of migrants in distress at sea have been rescued by civil society vessels deployed with a humanitarian mandate to reduce fatalities and bring rescued migrants to safety. In 2018, however, authorities in some Member States viewed civil society-deployed rescue vessels with hostility. As a reaction, they seized rescue vessels, arrested crew members, and initiated legal procedures against them (more than a dozen altogether). In some cases, rescue vessels were blocked in harbours due to flag issues.
    12
    Juni
    2019
    The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has applied across the European Union (EU) since 25 May 2018. One year on, this paper looks at how the new regulation has affected the daily work of civil society organisations (CSOs).
    6
    Juni
    2019
    This year’s focus explores the interrelationship between the human and fundamental rights framework and the Sustainable
    Development Goals (SDGs) of the global Agenda 2030 in the context of Member States’ and the EU’s internal policies.
    It takes a closer look at the SDGs related to reducing inequality (SDG 10) and promoting peace, justice and strong
    institutions (SDG 16).
    6
    Juni
    2019
    Das Jahr 2018 brachte in Bezug auf den Schutz der Grundrechte sowohl
    Fortschritte als auch Rückschritte. In ihrem Grundrechte-Bericht 2019
    untersucht die FRA wichtige Entwicklungen auf diesem Gebiet und zeigt sowohl
    Erfolge als auch Bereiche auf, in denen es immer noch Probleme gibt. Darüber
    hinaus äußert sich die FRA in dieser Veröffentlichung zu den wichtigsten
    Entwicklungen in den genannten Themenbereichen und gibt einen Überblick
    über die Informationen, die diesen Stellungnahmen zugrunde liegen.
    In the latest edition of his video blog, FRA Director Michael O'Flaherty focuses on press freedom and the importance of an independent media for the society.
    22
    März
    2019
    Die Mitgliedstaaten sind ausdrücklich verpflichtet, die Anwendung der Charta zu fördern. Mit diesen Länderblättern werden diese Bemühungen unterstützt. Sie enthalten Beispiele für die Anwendung der Charta und weisen auf den durch die Charta geschaffenen Mehrwert hin.
    26
    November
    2018
    Zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen spielen in Demokratien eine entscheidende Rolle, und
    die Bedeutung ihrer Arbeit wird in internationalen rechtlichen und politischen Dokumenten
    weithin anerkannt. Sie sind jedoch in ihrer täglichen Arbeit mit zahlreichen Hindernissen
    konfrontiert. Das vorliegende Dokument ergänzt den Bericht vom Januar 2018 auf Grundlage der Ergebnisse
    einer Online-Konsultation, die im September 2018 mit der Plattform für Grundrechte durchgeführt wurde.
    26
    Oktober
    2018
    The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights’ 2018 Fundamental Rights Forum
    brought together more than 700 human rights champions at a time of
    widening social divisions and increasingly polarised politics across
    Europe.
    23
    Oktober
    2018
    Italian and Romanian version now available
    03 April 2020
    As a very modern human rights catalogue containing many rights not found in established bills of rights, the Charter indeed looks good on paper. Those familiar with the
    main principles of EU law can usually quickly recite that the Charter is always binding
    on the EU, and binding on Member States only when they are “implementing EU law”.
    But what does this often-quoted language from Article 51 of the Charter actually mean?
    1
    Oktober
    2018
    This note draws attention to the recent trend of criminalising search and rescue operations (SAR) in the Mediterranean Sea carried out by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or other private entities. This includes seizing rescue vessels, as well as arrests for crew members, in some EU Member States. Most of such incidents concerned NGOs operating in the Central Mediterranean Sea.
    1
    Oktober
    2018
    With this Opinion, FRA aims to contribute to the European Parliament's own-initiative report on the “Implementation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union in the EU institutional framework”, being prepared in the Parliament’s Committee for Constitutional Affairs (AFCO). The request aims at understanding the interaction between the Charter’s implementation at national and EU level, and whether there are “instruments, mechanisms and practices” available at EU level to assist Member States to better implement the Charter.
    26
    September
    2018
    Diese zehn Tipps sind das Ergebnis mehrerer Tagungen, Praxisseminare und Fokusgruppen mit Fachleuten für Kommunikation aus unterschiedlichen Bereichen, die die FRA 2017 und 2018 durchgeführt hat.
    This video blog by FRA Director Michael O'Flaherty is released periodically and will address burning fundamental rights themes.