This paper presents key findings from FRA’s second
consultation of its Fundamental Rights Platform,
focusing on the experiences of civil society
organisations (CSOs) working on human rights.
FRA started an annual consultation with organisations
participating in its platform in 2018.
The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights has been regularly collecting data on asylum and
migration since September 2015. This report focuses on the fundamental rights situation of
people arriving in Member States and EU candidate countries particularly affected by migration.
It addresses fundamental rights concerns between 1 April and 30 June 2020.
This practical guidance addresses border-management staff in European Union (EU) Member States who work at the operational level. It aims to support them in implementing the fundamental rights safeguards of the Schengen Borders Code (Regulation (EU) No. 2016/399) and related EU law instruments in their daily work, when carrying out controls at external land borders.
The EU Return Directive (2008/115/EC) in Article 8 (6) introduced an important fundamental rights safeguard for third-country nationals ordered to leave the EU because they do not or no longer fulfil the conditions for entry and/or stay. According to the directive, Member States must provide for an effective forced-return monitoring system.
The Coronavirus pandemic continues to interrupt everyday life in the EU
in unprecedented ways. But the way it affects our societies is shifting.
As governments gradually lift some of the measures put in place to
contain the spread of COVID-19, new fundamental rights concerns arise:
how to ensure that the rights to life and health are upheld as daily life
transitions to a ‘new normal’. This Bulletin looks at declarations of states of
emergency, or equivalent, and how they came under scrutiny. It considers
the impact on fundamental rights in important areas of daily life, and
includes a thematic focus on the pandemic's impact on older people
FRA’s Fundamental Rights Survey collected data from 35,000 people
about their experiences, perceptions and opinions on a range of
issues that are variously encompassed by human rights. This report
presents a small selection of the survey results. It focuses on findings
with respect to respondents’ opinions about human – or fundamental
– rights; their views and perceptions on the functioning of democratic
societies – as a pillar on which human rights can flourish; and on their
thoughts on and engagement with public services that have a duty
to enforce human rights law and to protect people’s rights.
In 2019, the International Organization for Migration estimated that 1,866 people have died or gone missing while crossing the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe to escape war or persecution or to pursue a better life. This is an average of five people per day. In recent years, a significant proportion 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. Since 2018, however, authorities in some EU Member States started viewing civil society-deployed rescue vessels with hostility. As a reaction, national authorities initiated about 40 administrative and criminal proceedings against crew members or vessels, including seizing the latter. In some cases, rescue vessels were blocked in harbours due to flag issues or the inability to meet technical requirements.
This focus takes a closer look at the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which has been legally binding for 10 years. At EU level, it has gained visibility and sparked a new fundamental rights culture. At national level, awareness and use of the Charter are limited. Courts increasingly use the Charter, showing the impact of this modern instrument. But its use by governments and parliaments remains low. For instance, there is little indication of anyone regularly scrutinising national legislation that transposes EU law for compatibility with the Charter.
W niniejszym dokumencie zwraca się szczególną uwagę
na stosowanie Karty praw podstawowych Unii Europejskiej,
która jest prawnie wiążąca od 10 lat. Na szczeblu unijnym
stała się ona bardziej widoczna i zapoczątkowała nową
kulturę praw podstawowych. Na szczeblu krajowym
świadomość i stosowanie Karty są ograniczone. Sądy w coraz
większym stopniu stosują Kartę, co pokazuje znaczenie tego
nowoczesnego instrumentu. Niemniej jednak jego stosowanie
przez rządy i parlamenty pozostaje na niskim poziomie.
Przykładowo niewiele wskazuje na to, by ktokolwiek
regularnie kontrolował przepisy krajowe dokonujące
transpozycji prawa Unii pod kątem ich zgodności z Kartą.
O presente Destaque aborda mais de perto a aplicação da
Carta dos Direitos Fundamentais da União Europeia, que se
tornou juridicamente vinculativa há 10 anos. Ao nível da UE,
a Carta ganhou visibilidade e deu origem a uma nova cultura
de direitos fundamentais. No plano nacional, a sensibilização
para a Carta e a sua utilização têm sido limitadas. Os tribunais
utilizam cada vez mais a Carta, evidenciando o impacto deste
moderno instrumento. Mas a sua utilização pelos governos
e parlamentos continua a ser modesta. Por exemplo, há
poucas indicações sobre a existência ou não de pessoas
que se dedicam a examinar regularmente se as legislações
nacionais que transpõem a legislação da UE são compatíveis
com a Carta.
Ta osrednja tema podrobneje obravnava uporabo Listine
Evropske unije o temeljnih pravicah, ki je pravno zavezujoča
že 10 let. Na ravni EU je postala prepoznavnejša, spodbudila
pa je tudi novo kulturo spoštovanja temeljnih pravic. Na
nacionalni ravni sta uporaba Listine in ozaveščenost o njej
omejeni. Na sodiščih se uporaba tega sodobnega instrumenta
povečuje, kar kaže, da ima vpliv, vlade in parlamenti pa ga
še naprej uporabljajo le redko. Tako na primer skoraj nič ne
kaže na to, da kdo redno podrobno preverja, ali je nacionalna
zakonodaja za prenos prava EU skladna z Listino.
Το 2019 υπήρξε έτος προόδου αλλά και προβλημάτων
όσον αφορά την προστασία των θεμελιωδών
δικαιωμάτων. Στην Έκθεση για τα Θεμελιώδη
Δικαιώματα 2020 του FRA εξετάζονται οι
σημαντικότερες εξελίξεις στον τομέα και
προσδιορίζονται όχι μόνο τα επιτεύγματα, αλλά και
τα ζητήματα που εξακολουθούν να προκαλούν
ανησυχία. Στην παρούσα δημοσίευση
παρουσιάζονται οι γνώμες του FRA σχετικά με τις
κυριότερες εξελίξεις στους εξεταζόμενους θεματικούς
τομείς και συνοπτική τεκμηρίωση των γνωμών
αυτών. Με αυτόν τον τρόπο, παρέχεται μια συνοπτική
και ταυτόχρονα κατατοπιστική επισκόπηση των
βασικών προκλήσεων τις οποίες αντιμετωπίζουν η ΕΕ
και τα κράτη μέλη στον τομέα των θεμελιωδών
δικαιωμάτων.
The year 2019 brought both progress and
setbacks in terms of fundamental rights protection.
FRA’s Fundamental Rights Report 2020 reviews
major developments in the field, identifying both
achievements and remaining areas of concern.
This publication presents FRA’s opinions on the main
developments in the thematic areas covered, and a
synopsis of the evidence supporting these opinions.
In so doing, it provides a compact but informative
overview of the main fundamental rights challenges
confronting the EU and its Member States.
En el año 2019 se produjeron tanto avances como
retrocesos en materia de protección de los derechos
fundamentales. El Informe sobre los derechos
fundamentales 2020 de la Agencia de los Derechos
Fundamentales de la Unión Europea (FRA) analiza
los principales acontecimientos en este ámbito,
destacando tanto los progresos realizados como
las dificultades que todavía persisten. La publicación
presenta los dictámenes de la FRA sobre los
principales avances realizados en los ámbitos
temáticos contemplados, así como un resumen
de las pruebas que respaldan tales dictámenes.
Esto permite disponer de una visión de conjunto,
compacta, pero muy ilustrativa, de los principales
desafíos en materia de derechos fundamentales
a los que se enfrentan la UE y sus Estados miembros.
FRA’s Fundamental Rights Report 2020 reviews major developments in the field in 2019, identifying both achievements and areas of concern. It also presents FRA’s opinions on these developments, including a synopsis of the evidence supporting these opinions. This year’s focus chapter explores how to unlock the full potential of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The Coronavirus pandemic continues to interrupt everyday life in the EU
in unprecedented ways. But the way it affects our societies is shifting. As
governments gradually lift some of the measures put in place to contain the
spread of COVID-19, new fundamental rights concerns arise: how to ensure that
the rights to life and health are upheld as daily life transitions to a ‘new normal’.
This Bulletin looks at declarations of states of emergency, or equivalent, and
how they came under scrutiny. It considers the impact on fundamental rights in
important areas of daily life, and includes a thematic focus on the processing of
users’ data to help contain COVID-19, particularly by contact-tracing apps. It covers the period 21 March – 30 April 2020.
The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights has been regularly collecting data on migration since September 2015. This report focuses on the fundamental rights situation of people arriving in Member States and EU candidate countries particularly affected by large migration movements. It addresses key fundamental rights concerns between 1 January and 31 March 2020.
In recent years, thousands of girls and boys have reached Europe without their parents, and sought international protection. Many of them experienced violence, abuse and neglect in their home countries, and while in transit. They have the right to be protected in line with the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the European Convention on Human Rights, and European Union law. This report explores the challenges and good practices gathered in the implementation of such relocation programmes. Based on information FRA collected in 10 EU Member States, it aims to help national authorities to support the relocation of unaccompanied children by taking measures that are fully rights compliant and practically feasible.
Based on the lessons learned from relocation
experiences and on existing international and EU legal
standards, FRA has developed a number of practical
suggestions for the adjustment of relocation efforts to
the protection needs of unaccompanied children. This
guidance aims to be a practical tool for Member States
that wish to engage in the relocation of unaccompanied
children and in any future responsibility-sharing
mechanisms, and to gain knowledge on how this can
be done while respecting the child’s best interests.
The outbreak of COVID-19 affects people’s daily life in the 27 EU Member States. As the number of infected people in the EU territory began to mount rapidly in February and March, governments put in place a raft of measures – often introduced in a period of only a few days – in an effort to contain the spread of the virus. Many of these measures reflect how, in exceptional emergency situations, the urgent need to save lives justifies restrictions on other rights, such as the freedom of movement and of assembly. This report outlines some of the measures EU Member States have put in place to protect public health during the COVID-19 pandemic. It covers the period 1 February – 20 March 2020.