The rapid development of information technology has exacerbated the need for robust personal data protection, the right to which is safeguarded by both European Union (EU) and Council of Europe (CoE) instruments. Safeguarding this important right entails new and significant challenges as technological advances expand the frontiers of areas such as surveillance, communication interception and data storage. This handbook is designed to familiarise legal practitioners not specialised in data protection with this emerging area of the law.
Civil society organisations in the European Union play a crucial role in promoting fundamental
rights, but it has become harder for them do so – due to both legal and practical restrictions.
This summary outlines the main
findings and FRA’s opinions on the different
types and patterns of challenges faced by civil society
organisations across the EU,
With terrorism, cyber-attacks and sophisticated cross-border criminal networks posing growing threats, the work of intelligence services has become more urgent, complex and international. Such work can strongly interfere with fundamental rights, especially privacy and data protection. While continuous technological advances potentially exacerbate the threat of such interference, effective oversight and remedies can curb the potential for abuse.
The methods used to determine the age of
an applicant may include “invasive” medical tests which interfere with the rights of the child, including their right to dignity,
integrity and privacy. It is often a challenge to find the right balance between protecting children from harm and promoting
their participation in these procedures. This report provides important insights and identifies the implications of collecting
children’s biometric data and conducting age assessments.
This report outlines Member States’ approaches to age requirements and limits
regarding child participation in judicial proceedings; procedural safeguards for, and rights of, children involved in criminal
proceedings; as well as issues related to depriving children of their liberty.
Despite ambitious initiatives, the fundamental rights situation of Roma in the EU remains profoundly troubling. This report examines the persisting phenomenon of anti-Gypsyism and its effect on Roma inclusion efforts. It first presents data on key manifestations of anti-Gypsyism, namely discrimination, harassment and hate crime.
This report outlines the fundamental rights implications of collecting, storing and using
biometric and other data in EU IT systems in the area of asylum and migration.
European non-discrimination law, as constituted in particular by the EU non-discrimination
directives, and Article 14 of and Protocol 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights, prohibits
discrimination across a range of contexts and grounds. This handbook examines European non-discrimination
law stemming from these two sources as complementary systems, drawing on
them interchangeably to the extent that they overlap, while highlighting differences where
these exist.
This focus report assesses how the presence of
large numbers of persons in need of international
protection affects local communities in terms of
housing, education, the local economy and social
responses.
EU Member States’ legal and practical responses to migrants and refugees implicate several of their fundamental rights, as enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (EU). The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has regularly reported on these issues since September 2015. This report highlights key trends and persistent concerns between October 2016 and December 2017. It focuses on five areas: access to territory, reception conditions, asylum procedures, unaccompanied children and immigration detention.
Civil society organisations in the European Union play a crucial role in promoting fundamental rights, but it has become harder for them to do so – due to both legal and practical restrictions. This report looks at the different types and patterns of challenges faced by civil society organisations working on human rights in the EU.
Guardians are a key element of a protection system for children who are temporarily or
permanently deprived of their family environment and cannot have their interests represented
by their parents. Great disparities exist between the types of guardianship provided
to children in and within European Union (EU) Member States. This report explores the key
features of guardianship systems put in place to cater for the needs of all children in need
of protection, including child victims and those at risk of becoming victims of trafficking in
human beings or of other forms of exploitation.
Seventeen years after adoption of EU laws that forbid discrimination, immigrants, descendants of immigrants, and minority ethnic groups continue to face widespread discrimination across the EU and in all areas of life – most often when seeking employment. For many, discrimination is a recurring experience. This is just one of the findings of FRA’s second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey (EU-MIDIS II), which collected information from over 25,500 respondents with different ethnic minority and immigrant backgrounds across all 28 EU Member States.
Women and girls in the European Union (EU) experience persistent gender discrimination and gender-based violence, as evidence collected by FRA confirms. This severely limits the ability of women and girls to enjoy their rights and to participate on an equal footing in society. This FRA contribution to the third Annual Colloquium on Fundamental Rights ‘Women's rights in turbulent times’ looks at core human rights commitments. It balances these against selected evidence on gender discrimination, sexist hate speech and gender-based violence against women and girls in the EU.
This report provides an overview of data on antisemitism as recorded by
international organisations and by official and unofficial sources in the 28 European
Union (EU) Member States, based on their own definitions and categorisations.
This report is FRA’s second publication addressing a European Parliament request for in-depth research on the impact of surveillance on fundamental rights. It updates FRA’s 2015 legal analysis on the topic, and supplements that analysis with field-based insights gained from extensive interviews with diverse experts in intelligence and related fields, including its oversight.
The transition from institution- to community-based support for persons with disabilities is a complex process that requires multifaceted efforts. These include putting in place commitments and structures for achieving deinstitutionalisation and measuring outcomes for persons with disabilities. This report shows that effectively funding the deinstitutionalisation process is a vital element.
Discussions are under way at the European Union (EU) and national levels about how best to realise the transition from institutional to community-based support. This report contributes to these by bringing together some of the key issues that have emerged from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights’ (FRA) human rights indicators on Member States’ political and practical commitment to deinstitutionalisation.
This report assesses to what extent Member States have implemented the right to independent living, focusing on the effect commitments and funds are having on persons with disabilities’ daily lives. Taken together, the reports provide important insights that can support ongoing processes of change.
This report assesses to which extent selected EU Member States have put
in place mechanisms to ensure appropriate oversight and control of quality
standards in reception facilities. Such oversight and control is essential for
providing dignified and fundamental rights-compatible living conditions
for asylum seekers.