Newsroom

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FRA will join an EU RIGHTS CITIES project workshop in Zagreb from 29 to 30 September. The EU RIGHTS CITIES project aims to raise awareness and support the effective implementation of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights at the city level in the EU.
On 2 October, the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN) will visit FRA as part of their regular cooperation activities with the Agency. 36 judges, prosecutors and court staff will participate in the study visit.
FRA will speak during the cybersecurity technical workshop in Brussels on 1 October.
On 16 September, FRA spoke at a seminar held by the Slovakian National Human Rights Institution.
On 17 September, FRA will contribute online to an EU-funded project workshop on the use of the EU’s Fundamental Rights Charter in the Spanish legal system.
FRA will present selected results of the EU gender-based violence survey at a conference on 17 September in Vienna. The University of Vienna and UN Office on Drugs and Crime are organising the event.
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The FRA Scientific Committee met on 5 September at the Agency in Vienna. It elected Gentian Zyberi as its new Chair and John Morijn as Vice-Chair. Both will serve a one-year term.
FRA’s Director Sirpa Rautio gave the keynote speech on the increasing role of National Human Rights Institutions in protecting human rights at an academic conference at Bocconi University.
On 9 September, FRA gave online training on fundamental rights in connection with the use of biometrics at an event on vulnerabilities in automated border crossings at Rome Fiumicino airport.
Being intersex in the EU means facing alarming levels of violence, harassment and discrimination in daily life, finds the latest report from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Many intersex people have been forced to undergo ‘conversion’ practices or medical procedures without their informed consent, amounting to serious fundamental rights violations. FRA calls on EU countries to address the specific needs of intersex people to protect them from hate, discrimination and medical interventions without their free and fully informed consent.
FRA’s Director Sirpa Rautio will give the keynote speech on the increasing role of National Human Rights Institutions in protecting human rights at an academic conference at Bocconi University.
The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights’ new Brussels Liaison Office has officially opened. It marks an important step in enhancing FRA’s cooperation with EU institutions, Member States’ Permanent Representations in Brussels, European umbrella civil society organisations and other Brussels-based stakeholders.
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FRA will contribute to the first session of the UN Human Rights Office’s open-ended intergovernmental working group that will explore a draft optional protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It will look at the rights to early childhood education, free pre-primary and secondary education.
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FRA will present the results of the EU’s gender-based violence survey during the European Society of Criminology’s annual conference.
The EU’s Monitoring Framework to the UN’s Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities will discuss the national implementation of selected EU laws related to the rights of people with disabilities. National monitoring frameworks, as well as with ENNHRI and Equinet will join the meeting.
Allegations of ill-treatment and abuse against migrants and refugees at EU borders continue. Even though more incidents are now raised with judicial authorities, there have been no structural changes to improve the effectiveness of national investigations, finds the latest update from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). The findings underline the need to ensure more effective investigations of rights violations at borders.
On 30 July, FRA will give an online presentation on the role of the judiciary and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights during the annual Summer School of the National School of Judges of Ukraine. The school includes a number of presentations from international experts, including FRA.
Sirpa Rautio
At an informal Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Copenhagen under the Danish Presidency of the Council of the European Union combatting violence against children was discussed. The director of FRA, Sirpa Rautio, stressed the importance of developing strong, integrated child protection systems, highlighting the need to root child protection in children’s rights, and emphasise their rights to equal participation, protection and development.
Sirpa Rautio
At an informal Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Copenhagen under the Danish Presidency of the Council of the European Union simplifying EU’s General Data Protection Regulation was discussed. FRA's director Sirpa Rautio underlined how any efforts towards simplification must not lower existing fundamental rights protections, which underpin our functioning democratic societies.
Some non-EU countries increasingly use migrants and refugees to put pressure on the EU and its external borders. As EU countries react by building fences and restricting asylum procedures, a new position paper from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) underlines how countries can deal with such pressures in a legal and legitimate way. It highlights that the EU must respond by punishing the actors responsible for instrumentalisation, rather than migrants and refugees who are often unaware that they are being used.