Systems

Support for human rights systems and defenders

Many organisations work to defend your rights. We help their efforts with independent evidence, advice and expertise.

We support their frontline work. And we shine a light on potential risks and priority areas. Together we make your rights a reality.

Highlights

  • Periodic updates / Series
    18
    October
    2023
    Civil society organisations struggle to maintain an environment safe from threats and attacks. FRA’s sixth annual update on civic space explores the challenges for organisations across the EU. While there has been significant development since FRA began monitoring the situation in 2018, civil society organisations remain under immense pressure. Abusive lawsuits and attacks against those involved in migrant search and rescue at sea are just some of the challenges identified. This report presents ways forward to protect civil society and human rights.
  • Report / Paper / Summary
    11
    October
    2021
    This report proposes a framework for becoming, and functioning as, a ‘human rights city’ in the EU. It includes ‘foundations’, ‘structures’ and ‘tools’ for mayors, local administrations and grassroots organisations to reinforce fundamental rights locally. It is based on existing good practice and expert input by representatives of human rights cities in the EU, academic experts, international organisations and city networks.
  • Page
    The European Union Fundamental Rights Information System EFRIS is a Human Rights Gateway, bringing together data and information from existing human rights databases, and enables viewing and analysis of relevant assessments of fundamental rights in the EU.
  • Handbook / Guide / Manual
    23
    October
    2018
    As a very modern human rights catalogue containing many rights not found in established bills of rights, the Charter indeed looks good on paper. Those familiar with the main principles of EU law can usually quickly recite that the Charter is always binding on the EU, and binding on Member States only when they are "implementing EU law". But what does this often-quoted language from Article 51 of the Charter actually mean?
Products
FRA took part at the second meeting of the Education and Training 2020 Working Group on Promoting Common Values and Inclusive Education.
On 1 December this year it will be 10 years that the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights entered into legal force. To mark a decade of human rights protection through a written bill of rights at EU level, FRA has put the anniversary branding on its website.
FRA hosted a workshop on 30 May on empowering socially excluded people to participate in designing, implementing and monitoring policies.
FRA met with the Czech Public Defender of Rights, Anna Šabatová, on 22 May in Brno to assess cooperation.
The summary of FRA’s report on civil society challenges across the EU outlines the main findings emerging from the research and what can be done to address them.
On 22 May in Brussels, FRA presented its report From institutions to community living for persons with disabilities: perspectives from the ground during a seminar by the Belgian equal opportunities body, Unia.
On 17 May, FRA took part in a SERISS expert meeting on survey fieldwork costs organised at NIDI in The Hague.
On 8 May, FRA’s Director participated via videoconference in a hearing of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament.
On 14 May in Brussels, the Heads of FRA, the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI) and the European Network of Equality Bodies (Equinet) met to explore ways to better work together on promoting and protecting human rights and equality across Europe.
On 8 May, FRA gave a workshop on the EU’s Fundamental Rights Charter for European Parliament staff.
On 8 May, the FRA Director, FRA staff, Equinet and ENNHRI met to coordinate respective work plans and activities to optimise their impact when communicating about fundamental rights.
On 3 May, the FRA Director gave the keynote speech at the event ‘Media for democracy, journalism and elections in times of disinformation’ in Geneva.
The agency joined the European Business Summit, on 6–7 May in Brussels.
From 7 to 8 May, representatives from intergovernmental organisations and EU institutions responsible for cooperation with civil society and for supporting human rights defenders in Europe and Central Asia met in Warsaw.
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FRA will join a conference on ‘Protecting Civic Space in the European Union’, which is being organised by the UN Human Rights Regional Office for Europe (OHRHC).
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The agency’s National Liaison Officers (NLOs) will meet in Vienna from 14 to 15 October to discuss FRA’s cooperation with EU Member States.
A delegation of FRA’s Management team will meet the Council of Europe on 10 and 11 October in Strasbourg to discuss how to further strengthen cooperation.
The Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU has invited FRA’s Director to address the EU Council’s Working Party on 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Brussels on 9 October.
The Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU has invited FRA’s Director to address EU Justice Ministers during the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 7 October.
FRA will take part in a national stakeholder conference convened by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission on 3 October in Dublin.
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Leading human rights communicators will gather at FRA from 3 to 4 October to discuss and seek solutions for the challenges and opportunities arising from the pace of change in the world around us.
FRA will welcome representatives of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Permanent Mission of Norway to the International Organizations in Vienna and the Financial Mechanism Office on 24 September.
The FRA Executive Board will meet at the Agency on 27 September.
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FRA will take part in a meeting on the protection of human rights defenders.
On 18 September in Helsinki, the FRA Director will speak at a high-level conference on ‘the Economy of Wellbeing’.
The FRA Director will present its Fundamental Rights Report 2019 to the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee on 12 September in Brussels.
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The FRA Director will deliver a keynote speech at a conference on 10 September in Helsinki being organised by the Finnish Presidency of the EU.
FRA will speak about the situation of civil society organisations in the EU to the European civil society organisations and networks Liaison Group of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in Brussels on 12 September.
The independent member appointed by the Council of Europe to FRA’s Management Board, Rainer Hofmann, will give a presentation to the Council of Europe’s Rapporteur Group on External Relations of the Committee of Ministers on 10 September in Strasbourg.
The FRA Director will have his first exchange of views following the European Parliament elections with its Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE) in Brussels on 5 September.
The agency’s Scientific Committee will meet on 5 September at FRA.
On 26 August, during this year’s Alpbach Forum, FRA and the International Ombudsman Institute will run a session on human rights under pressure.
Europol will host a meeting of EU Justice & Home Affairs Agencies on 5 July in The Hague.
On 1 July, at the Global Campus of Human Rights in Venice, FRA will participate in a roundtable discussion on the experiences, challenges and successes of EU fundamental rights training and online learning in particular.