Newsroom

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.
FRA discussed how to enhance human rights education for legal professionals and how to improve cooperation among all national and international institutions during the Council of Europe HELP Annual Networking Conference.
The OECD and Germany’s Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency invited FRA to contribute to a technical expert workshop on estimating the economic cost of discrimination.
FRA presented its guidance on monitoring fundamental rights during screening and the asylum border procedure to a European Parliament Asylum Working Group. The Group is part of the Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.
On 23 July, FRA’s director will take part in the Justice Day of the informal Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Copenhagen, as part of the Danish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
FRA provided evidence-based input to support the development of the EU’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2026–2030. The contribution draws on the Agency’s survey data, research findings, and expert opinions.
FRA contributed to the European Commission’s 2025 Rule of Law report, following a request from the European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection.
FRA shared input with the European Commission as it drafts its first EU affordable housing plan. FRA calls for a rights-based approach to housing.
FRA attended a European Commission meeting with EU Member States and relevant EU Justice and Home Affairs agencies to discuss the first draft of the European Annual Asylum and Migration Report.
FRA’s Director will present key findings of its annual Fundamental Rights Report 2025 on 14 July in Brussels to the European Parliament’s Committee of Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE).