8
December
2025
Better legislation – Human rights impact assessments in lawmaking
This 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.
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- Foreword
- Key findings
- Introduction
- 1. Relevant law and policy
- 2. Assessment and evaluation of human rights impacts in practice
- 3. Ensuring informed lawmaking
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4. Ways forward
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4.1. The EU level
- 4.1.1. Ensure the systematic application of fundamental rights impact assessments
- 4.1.2. Increase the accessibility and inclusiveness of public consultations
- 4.1.3. Consider independent external fundamental rights expertise
- 4.1.4. Support peer-learning between Member States to further improve their HRIA systems
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4.2. The national level
- 4.2.1. Develop coherent and comprehensive guidelines that explicitly use the Charter when legislating within the scope of EU law
- 4.2.2. Use the EU-level HRIA as starting point and complement it with a national impact assessment to appropriately address the national context
- 4.2.3. Ensure high quality assessments through appropriate coordination, consultation and capacity building
- 4.2.4. Ensure that ex post evaluations become the rule and systematically consider human rights impacts
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4.1. The EU level
- Acronyms and Abbreviations
- About this publication
- CJEU– Court of Justice of the European Union
- CRPD– Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- CSO– Civil society organisation
- ECHR– European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
- ECtHR– European Court of Human Rights
- EPRS– European Parliamentary Research Service
- EU– European Union
- FRA– EU Agency for Fundamental Rights
- HRIA– human and fundamental rights impact assessment
- RIA– regulatory impact assessment
- NGO– non-governmental organisation
- NHRI– national human rights institution
- OECD– Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
- OSCE– Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe
- ODIHR– Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE
- RRF– Recovery and Resilience Facility
- TEU– Treaty on European Union
- TFEU– Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
- UN– United Nations
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